Ken kesey biography outlines
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Ken Kesey
American writer and countercultural figure (–)
Ken Elton Kesey (; September 17, &#;– November 10, ) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the s and the hippies of the s.
Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, and grew up in Springfield, Oregon, graduating from the University of Oregon in He began writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in after completing a graduate fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University; the novel was an immediate commercial and critical success when published two years later. During this period, Kesey was used by the CIA without his knowledge in the Project MKULTRA involving hallucinogenic drugs (including mescaline and LSD), which was done to try to make people insane to put them under the control of interrogators.[4][5]
After One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was published, Kesey moved to nearby La Honda, California, and beg
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Ken Kesey
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Who Was Ken Kesey?
Ken Kesey attended Stanford University and later served as an experimental subject and aide in a hospital, an experience that led to his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. That book was followed bygd Sometimes a Great Notion and several works of nonfiction that detailed Kesey's transformation from novelist to guru of the hippie generation.
Early Life
Ken Elton Kesey was born on September 17, , in La Junta, Colorado. He was raised by his dairy farmer parents in rugged Springfield, Oregon, where he grew to be a star wrestler and football player. At the University of Oregon, he also developed an interest in theater but was awarded a Fred Lowe Scholarship for his accomplishments in wrestling. Kesey married his high school flickvän Norma Faye Haxby in , and after briefly considering a career as an actor, relocated to Palo Alto, California, when he won a scholarship to the graduate schema in writing at Stanford University.
'One Flew Over
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A farm boy from the Willamette Valley, Ken Kesey brought an earthy, independent spirit to the American literary scene and to his self-designated role as the young Turk of the s counterculture. His literary reputation rests on two novels, both written before he was thirty. His fame (or notoriety) as a countercultural icon stems from his band of willful misfits, the Merry Pranksters, who openly used and advocated psychedelic drugs. Kesey’s antics made him an object of admiration and scorn, yet his willingness to push limits and redefine normal boundaries came with a serious sense of purpose.
Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, on September 17, When he was eleven, his parents moved to the Springfield area to establish a dairy cooperative. In , he married Faye Haxby. They had three children and raised a daughter from his liaison with fellow Merry Prankster Carolyn Adams.
Kesey’s pugnacious personality was shaped during his years at Springfield High School and the University of Orego