At Stanford University, Ken Kesey became involved with the Beat culture in San Francisco.

Kesey's exposure to LSD as well as his time spent as an orderly in a psychiatric hospital inspired him to write "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," a cult classic.

He later gave up writing, directed his attention to experimenting with LSD, formed a group of cohorts called the "Merry Pranksters," bought an old bus and traveled across the country distributing LSD in "acid tests." The escapades were recorded in Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" also a cult classic.

Pub Date: 10/04/98