American writer, who gained world fame with his novel one flew over the cuckoo's nest (1962, filmed 1975). Kesey became in the 1960s a counterculture hero and a guru of psychedelic drugs with Timothy Leary. Kesey has been called the Pied Piper who changed the beat generation into the hippie movement.

Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, and brought up in Eugene, Oregon. His father worked in creamery business. He studied at the University of Oregon, where he acted in college plays. On graduating he won a scholarship to Stanford University. Kesey soon dropped out and joined the counterculture movement. In 1956 he married his his school sweetheart, Faye Haxby. He began experimenting with drugs and wrote an unpublished novel, ZOO, about the beatniks of the North Beach community in San Francisco.

At a Veterans Administration hospital in Menlo Park, California, Kesey was paid volunteer experimental subject, taking mind-altering drugs and reporting their effects. These experiences as an aide at a psychiatric hospital and LSD sessions formed the background for One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest, which was set in a mental hospital. While writing the work, Kesey took peyote. The book suggests that the really dangerous mental cases are those in positions of authority. The film adaptation of the book was a huge success.

Kesey's next novel, SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION appeared two years later and was also made into a film, this time directed by Paul Newman. The story was set in a logging community and centered on two brothers and their bitter rivalry in the family.

In 1965 Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana. He fled to Mexico, where he faked an unconvincing suicide and then returned to the United States, serving a five-month prison sentence. In the early 1970s Kesey returned to writing and published KESEY'S GARAGE SALE (1973). His later works include the children's book LITTLE TRICKER THE SQUIRREL MEETS BIG DOUBLE THE BEAR (1990) and SAILOR SONG (1992), a futuristic tale about an Alaskan fishing village and Hollywood film crew. LAST GO AROUND (1994), Kesey's last book, was an account of a famous Oregon rodeo written in the form of pulp fiction. Kesey died of complications after surgery for liver cancer on November 10, 2001.