Conversations with Ken Kesey - Literary Conversations Series

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Table of Contents: Introduction -- Chronology -- Ken Kesey's First Trip: Menlo Park Veterans Hospital / 1959 -- What the Hell You Looking in Here for, Daisy Mae? / Gordon Lish / 1963 -- Ken Kesey at N. D. E. A.: Pacifica Radio Archives / 1965 -- The Evening Standard Interview: Ken Kesey / Ray Connolly / 1969 -- Once a Great Notion: Ann Arbor Argus / 1970 -- An Impolite Interview / Paul Krassner / 1971 -- Ken Kesey Summing Up the '60s, Sizing Up the '70s / Linda Gaboriau / 1972 -- Ken Kesey: The Prince of Pranksters / Rick Saunders, Bob Nesbitt, Vaughn Binzer / 1976 -- Getting Better / John Nance, Paul Pintarich, Sharon Wood / 1986 -- The Fresh Air Interview: Ken Kesey / Terry Gross / 1989 -- Collaboration in the Writing Classroom: An Interview with Ken Kesey / Carolyn Knox-Quinn / 1990 -- Comes Spake the Cuckoo / Todd Brendan Fahey / 1992 -- Ken Kesey: Writing Is an Act of Performance / Dan McCue / 1993 -- An Interview with Ken Kesey / Matthew Rick, Mary Jane Fenex / 1993 -- Ken Kesey: The Art of Fiction No. 136 / Robert Faggen / 1993 -- Ken Kesey: Still on the Bus 170 Robert K. Elder /1999 -- Ken Kesey's Last Interview / Mike Finoia / 1999 -- Index. Publisher Marketing: Ken Kesey (1935-2001) is the author of several works of well-known fiction and other hard-to-classify material. His debut novel, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," was a critical and commercial sensation that was followed soon after by his most substantial and ambitious book, "Sometimes a Great Notion." His other books, including "Demon Box, Sailor Song," and two children's books, appeared amidst a life of astounding influence. He is maybe best known for his role as the charismatic and proto-hippie leader of the West Coast LSD movement that sparked "The Sixties," as iconically recounted in Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." In the introduction to "An Impolite Interview with Ken Kesey," Paul Krassner writes, "For a man who says he doesn't like to do interviews, Kesey certainly does a lot of them." What's most surprising about this statement is not the incongruity between disliking and doing interviews but the idea that Kesey could possibly have been less than enthusiastic about being the center of attention. After his two great triumphs, writing played a lesser role in Kesey's life, but in thoughtful interviews he sometimes regrets the books that were sacrificed for the sake of his other pursuits. Interviews trace his arc through success, fame, prison, farming, and tragedy--the death of his son in a car accident profoundly altered his life. These conversations make clear Kesey's central place in American culture and offer his enduring lesson that the freedom exists to create lives as wildly as can be imagined.

Contributor Bio:  Kesey, Ken KEN KESEY was born in 1935 in Colorado and grew up in Oregon. After graduating from the University of Oregon, he received a Stegner fellowship from Stanford University, where he studied fiction under Wallace Stegner, Malcolm Cowley, and Frank O'Connor. Kesey's first two novels, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Sometimes a Great Notion", brought him great literary fame. His other books include "Kesey's Garage Sale, Demon Box, The Further Inquiry", and the novels "Sailor Song" (1992) and, with Ken Babbs, "Last Go Round". His children's books include "Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear" and "The Sea Lion". Kesey died in 2001. Contributor Bio:  Parker, Scott F Scott F. Parker is the author of "Running After Prefontaine: A Memoir" and "Revisited: Notes on Bob Dylan" and coeditor of "Coffee--Philosophy for Everyone: Grounds for Debate". His work has appeared in "Philosophy Now, Oregon Quarterly, Oregon Humanities", the "Oregonian", the "Star Tribune, Rain Taxi Review of Books, Fiction Writers Review", and others.