Ken Kesey Book summary

Ken Kesey was born in 1935, Colorado, USA. He studied creative writing at Stanford University and participated in an LSD trial that was going on at campus, which made him interested in how subjective perception could be. He wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest while working in a mental hospital, where he conferred at length with patients and staff. This was also his first novel, and it was published in 1962.

Ken Kesey experimented heavily with LSD; he was part of a group that called themselves the Merry Pranksters. They travelled across the US by road by bus. Their experience can be read in On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Ken Kesey was an important proponent of counter-culture. He popularised LSD and other Hallucinogenics.