Born in La Junta, Colorado, the accomplished author Ken Kesey lived from 1935- 2001. Kesey earned a bachelor's degree at The University of Oregon and later studied creative writing at Harvard University. Although he received an exceptional education, Kesey later volunteered in a number of governmen...

Summary 1 , a long-term patient in a psychiatric ward, narrates the events of the novel. The patients known as the "Acutes" are considered curable, while the "Chronics" cannot be fixed. The Chronics that can move around are "Walkers," and the rest are either "Wheelers" or "Vegetables." Nurse Ratc...

"Papa, they're foggin' it up again..." Thus begins the play "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," by Dale Wassermann. (Wasserman & Kesey, 1974) The person uttering these words is Chief Bromden, a Native American inmate of an institution for the mentally unstable. The best-selling nove...

Schizophrenia, manipulation and the human battle against literally mind-numbing conformity are all elements in the stage adaptation of Ken Kesey's powerful novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) escapes work on a prison farm by feigning mental illness, but ...