Today in Writing: September 17 – Ken Kesey’s Birthday

Ken Kesey was born today in writing history on September 17. Learn more about the author’s life and writing process. 

Today in Writing: September 17: Ken Kesey’s Birthday

Ken Kesey was born on September 17, 1935. Kesey is best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He was a prominent counterculture figure in American society.

Additional Facts About Ken Kesey

Please take this opportunity to learn more about Ken Kesey’s life and contributions to the literary world. Kesey’s novels were instant successes, and his influence on culture is still felt today. Aspiring writers should also use this opportunity as a writing exercise. Find inspiration and learn more details about Ken Kesey.

Ken Kesey Biography

Ken Elton Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, on September 17, 1935. The Kesey family moved to Springfield, Oregon, in 1946, where Ken would grow up. He aspired to be a wrestler, nearly qualifying for the Olympic team. However, a shoulder injury ended Kesey’s promise as a wrestler.

Kesey was an avid reader and movie-goer, idolizing figures like John Wayne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Zane Grey. After graduating from high school, he would attend the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication in Eugene, Oregon. He took various literature and writing classes at the University of Oregon.

While at university, Ken Kesey met his wife, Norma “Faye” Haxby. Kesey and Faye eloped and married in 1956. The couple remained married until Ken’s death and had three children: Jed, Zane, and Shannon. 

Acting and Standford University

Kesey graduated from the University of Oregon in 1957. After trying to work as an actor, he enrolled at Standford University in a non-degree program for creative writing. Several university staff members did not see promise in Kesey’s writing, referring to him as a “highly talented illiterate.” The Director of Standford’s Writing Center, Wallace Stegner, viewed Kesey as ‘a threat to civilization and intellectualism and sobriety.’ Stegner rejected Kesey’s application for a fellowship twice.

However, through Kesey’s struggle at Stanford, he made numerous allies to support his writing aspirations, like Malcolm Cowley, an influential editor and talent scout at Viking Press. While attending Cowley’s classes, he helped Kesey workshop the manuscript that would eventually become One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

MKULTRA and the Ken Kesey Acid Test Parties

In 1960, at the invitation of a Stanford psychology grad student, Ken Kesey volunteered for a project at the Menlo Park Veterans’ Hospital. Kesey was already working as a janitor in the building. This project turned out to be a top-secret military project funded by the CIA. Project MKULTRA studied the effects of psychedelic drugs on humans, such as cocaine, DMT, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), and LSD.

He wrote detailed accounts of his experience with these drugs during the study. It was also a routine he continued after the study with his private drug use. Kesey’s participation in the MKULTRA project gave him the inspiration he needed to finish One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1962. The book became an immediate success and was adapted into a play in 1963 and a film in 1975.

The success of his novel allowed Kesey to relocate to a log cabin in La Honda, California, 15 miles west of Stanford. Here is where Ken Kesey famously threw his ‘Acid Test’ parties. Friends and party-goers would take psychedelic drugs like LSD, party under colored strobe lights, and listen to bands like the Grateful Dead. These famed and decadent gatherings were portrayed by writers like Allen Ginsberg and Hunter S. Thompson. 

Ken Kesey Sometimes a Great Notion

Kesey published his next novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, in 1964. Written while on psychedelics, the book is considered Ken Kesey’s Magnus Opus. It would be adapted into a film directed by Paul Newman in 1970.

Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters

With the success of Sometimes a Great Notion, Kesey embarked on a cross-country road trip with Neal Cassady, an icon of the Beat Generation, and a group of friends. This bunch would come to call themselves the Merry Pranksters. The Pranksters wanted to experience a road trip across the United States on LSD.

In a move inspired by Jack Kerouac’s novel, On the Road, the Pranksters drover a custom school bus, nicknamed Furthur, across the country from California to New York City in 1964. In his book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe provides a first-hand account of the journey. Kesey would also talk of the experience upon his arrival in New York.

The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied. But we found as we went along, it got easier to make contact with people. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat. – Ken Kesey

Upon their return to the west coast, the Merry Pranksters continued to throw Acid Test parties around San Francisco throughout 1965 and 1966. During this time, Cassady introduced Kesey to Jack Kerouac, spontaneous prose extraordinaire, and Allen Ginsberg, two iconic figures in the Beat Generation. Ken Kesey also fathered his fourth child, Sunshine, with fellow Merry Prankster Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Adams. His wife Faye had approved of Ken fathering the child, born in 1966. Adams would raise Sunshine with Jerry Garcia.

Arrest and Later Life

Ken Kesey was arrested and sentenced to six months in jail on January 17, 1966. He had been arrested the previous year for possession of marijuana and subsequently faked his suicide. After fleeing to Mexico for several months, Kesey returned to the United States and served his sentence. Upon his release, he moved back to Pleasant Hill, Oregon, where he spent the rest of his life.

Death of Kesey’s Son

Ken Kesey’s son, Jeb, suffered severe head injuries in an auto accident on January 23, 1984. A wrestler for the University of Oregon, Jeb and the school’s team were traveling in a van to a wrestling match. The loaned vehicle lost control on a patch of ice and slid off the road.

Jeb Kesey was declared brain dead two days later, and his parents had his organs donated. Kesey was deeply affected by the death of his son and blamed a lack of school funding. In a letter to Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield, Kesey wrote:

And I began to get mad, Senator. I had finally found where the blame must be laid: that the money we are spending for national defense is not defending us from the villains real and near, the awful villains of ignorance, and cancer, and heart disease and highway death. How many school buses could be outfitted with seatbelts with the money spent for one of those 16-inch shells? – Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey’s Final Years

Kesey was diagnosed with diabetes in 1992 but continued to write. While mostly keeping to himself with his family in Pleasant Hill, he occasionally traveled and made appearances with the Merry Pranksters. However, his health continued to decline.

Kesey would suffer a stroke in 1997. A few years later, he underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his liver and did not recover. Ken Kesey died of complications from the surgery on November 10, 2001. He was 66.

Notable Ken Kesey Books In Order

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962)

Sometimes a Great Notion: A Novel (1964)

Kesey’s Garage Sale (1973)

Demon Box (1986)

The Further Inquiry (1990)

Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear (1990)

Sailor Song (1992)

Last Go Round (1994)

Twister: A Ritual Reality in Three-Quarters Plus Overtime if Necessary (1994)

Today in Writing: September 17 – 10 Ken Kesey Quotes

Ken Kesey was a countercultural icon. His writing explored topics and subject matter that polarized readers but kept them hooked to his text. Kesey’s legacy is one of perseverance and mind-altering narratives. Aspiring writers should take note of the author’s ability to question the status quo through his writing.

Ken Kesey Quotes

You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case.

Loved. You can’t use it in the past tense. Death does not stop that love at all.

People don’t want other people to get high, because if you get high, you might see the falsity of the fabric of the society we live in.

Take what you can use and let the rest go by.

When Shakespeare was writing, he wasn’t writing for stuff to lie on the page; it was supposed to get up and move around.

Fascism wants Baptism coast to coast.

People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense.

You can’t really be strong until you see a funny side to things.

I’ve been to too many Dead concerts. There’ve been smokin’ holes where my memory used to be.

The Republican consciousness has no integrity and it falls apart once you check it out. If you’re a Christian, why would you want to fry this dude?

Today in Writing: September 17 – Aspiring Writers Daily Writing Exercise

Do any of the stories from Ken Kesey’s life inspire you? Do any of Kesey’s contributions to literature inspire an idea of your own? Do any of his quotes inspire or make you think? 

Find a topic from today in writing and freewrite about it for at least 10 minutes. Don’t let any opportunity to write go to waste. Aspiring writers: Practice your writing today! Celebrate Today in Writing History September 17.