Kesey, Ken

Kesey, Ken (Elton)

(1935– ) writer; born in La Junta, Colo. He attended the University of Oregon (B.A. 1957), and studied writing at Stanford (1958–59). He volunteered for drug experiments and was a psychiatric attendant for the Veterans Administration Hospital, Menlo Park, Calif. (1961). This experience was directly related to his best-known work, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962). Living and farming in Pleasant Hill, Ore., he was never able to repeat the success of that work, but he retained his image as an inspiration for many young mavericks.