Neal Leon Cassady was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic and counterculture movements of the 1960s.
Larry Jeff McMurtry is an American novelist, essayist, bookseller, and screenwriter whose work is predominantly set in either the Old West or in contemporary Texas. His novels include Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films earning 26 Academy Award nominations. His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations, with the other three novels in his Lonesome Dove series adapted into three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and cowriter Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The Merry Pranksters were cohorts and followers of American author Ken Kesey in 1964.
Furthur is a 1939 International Harvester school bus purchased by author Ken Kesey in 1964 to carry his "Merry Band of Pranksters" cross-country, filming their counterculture adventures as they went. Due to the chaos of the trip and editing difficulties, the footage of their journey was never released as a movie until the 2011 documentary film Magic Trip—although the bus featured prominently in Tom Wolfe's 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
Nurse Ratched is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as well as the 1975 film of the same name. A cold, heartless, and passive-aggressive tyrant, Nurse Ratched became the stereotype of the nurse as a battleaxe. She has also become a popular metaphor for the corrupting influence of institutional power and authority in bureaucracies such as the psychiatric treatment center in which the novel is set.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest may refer to:
Who'll Stop the Rain is a 1978 psychological drama film directed by Karel Reisz and starring Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, Michael Moriarty, and Anthony Zerbe. It was released by United Artists and produced by Herb Jaffe and Gabriel Katzka with Sheldon Schrager and Roger Spottiswoode as executive producers. The screenplay was by Judith Rascoe and Robert Stone from Stone's novel Dog Soldiers. The music score was by Laurence Rosenthal and the cinematography by Richard H. Kline.
Sailor Song is a 1992 novel written by Ken Kesey. The only work of long fiction solely written by Kesey after Sometimes a Great Notion (1964), Sailor Song depicts the lives of the residents of Kuinak, a small town in Alaska, in the 2020s.
Sometimes a Great Notion is Ken Kesey's second novel, published in 1964. While One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) is more famous, many critics consider Sometimes a Great Notion Kesey's magnum opus. The story involves an Oregon family of gyppo loggers who cut and procure trees for a local mill in opposition to striking, unionized workers.
Kesey's Garage Sale is a collection of essays written by Ken Kesey. The book features the play "Over the Border" which is based on the time Kesey spent hiding in Mexico from drug charges in the United States. It is illustrated by the cartoonist and Merry Prankster Paul Foster.
Jackson Sundown, born Waaya-Tonah-Toesits-Kahn, was a Native American rodeo rider who has become a folk-hero for his mythic performance in the 1916 Pendleton Round-Up, largely popularized by Ken Kesey's novel The Last Go 'Round.
Demon Box is a 1986 collection of works by Ken Kesey. The book includes nonfiction and fiction short stories as well as some of Kesey's essays.
Caverns is a 1989 novel written collaboratively as an experiment by Ken Kesey and a creative writing class that he taught at the University of Oregon. The cover of the book says it was written by O.U. Levon—the name of this supposed author, spelled backwards, is "novel U.O.". The full list of authors is: Robert Blucher, Ben Bochner, James Finley, Jeff Forester, Bennett Huffman, Lynn Jeffress, Ken Kesey, Neil Lidstrom, H. Highwater Powers, Jane Sather, Charles Varani, Meredith Wadley, Lidia Yukman and Ken Zimmerman.
Twister: A Ritual Reality in Three Quarters Plus Overtime if Necessary, is a 1999 play by Ken Kesey, loosely based on L. Frank Baum's novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the 1939 film version, The Wizard of Oz. The play also features the West African deity Legba.
A cavern is another name for a cave or a large room within a cave.
Randle Patrick "Mac" McMurphy is the protagonist of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962). He appears in the stage and film adaptations of the novel as well. Jack Nicholson portrayed Randle Patrick McMurphy in the film adaption, earning him an Academy Award for Best Actor. He was nominated on the "Heroes" list of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains, but did not make the final list. He was ranked by film magazine Empire as the 61st Greatest Movie Character of All Time.
Lee Quarnstrom is a retired American journalist, former executive editor of Larry Flynt’s Hustler Magazine, and a former Beatnik. He was a core member of the Merry Band of Pranksters, a group loosely led by novelist Ken Kesey.
The Storyteller, also known as the Ken Kesey Memorial, is an outdoor bronze sculpture by Pete Helzer, installed at Kesey Square in Eugene, Oregon, in the United States. Unveiled in 2003, it depicts American novelist, essayist, and countercultural figure Ken Kesey reading to his three grandchildren, Kate Smith, Caleb Kesey and Jordan Smith. Plaques on the base of the sculpture contain excerpts from Kesey's novels One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) and Sometimes a Great Notion (1964).
