One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Text and Criticism; Revised Edition(The Viking Critical Library)

Table of Contents:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestIntroduction Chronology I. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: The Text II. The Author and His Work TOM WOLFE, What Do You Think of My Buddha? KEN KESEY, An Early Draft of the Opening Scene of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest KEN KESEY, Letter to Ken Babbs: ["Peyote and Point of View"] KEN KESEY, Letter to Ken Babbs: ["People on the Ward"] KEN KESEY, Characters on the Ward KEN KESEY, Draft Page with Holograph Revisions KEN KESEY, from An Impolite Interview with Ken Kesey KEN KESEY, from Ken Kesey Was a Successful Dope Fiend KEN KESEY, Who Flew Over What? III. Literary Criticism JACK F. MCCOMB, The RPM LESLIE A. FIEDLER, The Higher Sentimentality TERRY G. SHERWOOD, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the Comic Strip JAMES E. MILLER, JR., The Humor in the Horror JOSEPH J. WALDMEIR, Two Novelists of the Absurd: Heller and Kesey JOHN A. BARSNESS, Ken Kesey: The Hero in Modern Dress IRVING MALIN, Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ROBERT BOYERS, Porno-Politics HAROLD CLURMAN, Review of the Play WALTER KERR, ...And the Young Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest MARCIA L. FALK, Letter to the Editor of The New York Times LESLIE HORST, Bitches, Twitches, and Eunuchs: Sex-Role Failure and Caricature ANNETTE BENERT, The Voices of Fear: Kesey's Anatomy of Insanity BENJAMIN GOLUBOFF, The Carnival Artist in the Cuckoo's Nest MARSHA MCCREADIE, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Some Reasons for One Happy Adaptation CAROL PEARSON, The Cowboy Saint and the Indian Poet: The Comic Hero in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest IV. Analogies and Perspectives DALE WASSERMAN, from his play One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest MARY FRANCES ROBINSON, Ph.D., and WALTER FREEMAN, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P., Glimpses of Postlobotomy Personalities ARTHUR P. NOYES, M.D., and LAWRENCE C. KOLB, M.D., Shock and Other Physical Therapies RALPH ELLISON, from Invisible Man ROBERT PENN WARREN, from All the King's Men KEN KESEY, Neal Cassady JACK KEROUAC, from On the Road Topics for Discussion and Papers Selected Bibliography prepared by Joseph Weixlmann and M. Gilbert Porter

About the Author :
Ken Kesey was born in 1935 and grew up in Oregon. He graduated from the University of Oregon and later studied at Stanford with Wallace Stegner, Malcolm Cowley, Richard Scowcroft, and Frank O' Connor. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, his first novel, was published in 1962. His second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, followed in 1964. His other books include Kesey's Garage Sale, Demon Box, Caverns (with O. U. Levon), The Further Inquiry, Sailor Song, and Last Go Round (with Ken Babbs). His two children's books are Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear and The Sea Lion. Ken Kesey died on November 10, 2001.

Review :
"A work of genuine literary merit . . . What Mr. Kesey has done in his unusual novel is to transform the plight of a ward of inmates in a mental hospital into a glittering parable of good and evil." --The New York Times Book Review "[A] brilliant first novel . . . a strong, warm story about the nature of human good and evil . . . Keysey has made his book a roar of protest against middlebrow society's Rules and the invisible Rulers who enforce them." --Time "The final triumph of these men at the cost of a terrifying sacrifice should send chills down any reader's back. . . . This novel's scenes have the liveliness of a motion picture." --The Washington Post "An outstanding book . . . [Kesey's] characters are original and real. . . . This is a tirade against the increasing controls over man and his mind, yet the author never gets on a soap box. Nor does he forget that there is a thin line between tragedy and comedy." --Houston Chronicle