Few readers have the opportunity to explore the road authors take on their way to creating great works of literature.
“KESEY,” a book that reveals Ken Kesey’s writing process through a compilation of manuscript notes, photos, drawings and poems, has been reissued as part of the revival of the University of Oregon Press. The University’s literary magazine, Northwest Review, originally published the book in 1977.
Last year, the UO Press began searching for books from the University campus that hadn’t been published in several years, and they came across “KESEY” in their search, said acting director Tom Hager.
“He was a fabulous person as well as a great writer,” he said. “This book gets across a lot of his personality.”
“KESEY” introduces the reader to the author’s creative process and shows the progression of his works, such as “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Sometimes a Great Notion,” in draft form.
“Kesey hadn’t done much to preserve the papers,” said John Witte, editor of the Northwest Review. He said when the magazine had approached Kesey about the book back in the ’70s, they found most of his notes and early drafts scattered on the bottom of his chicken coop or the floor of his legendary bus, Furthur.
“He didn’t have any interest in saving them,” Witte said, though he probably saved the later drafts. He said Kesey never talked much about his writing process, so the salvation of his notes was extremely revealing.
The book “gives the reader a sense of where these great works came from,” he said.
University spokesman Ross West said “KESEY” contains a good mix of drafts of his works, writing by critics and historical information. He said through Kesey’s early stories, the reader can see the evolution in his views of the world.
“There are pages from his notebooks that gives insight into the mind of a great writer — a peek behind the curtain,” he said.
Witte said he thought the best part of “KESEY” was the inclusion of two chapters from “Seven Prayers by Grandma Whittier.” He described Grandma Whittier as “part crone” and “part hip chick,” and he said Kesey based the fictional character on his grandmother, who eventually lost her battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
“His grandmother was his muse,” Witte said, so when she died, so did Kesey’s inspiration for completing the novel.
Seven Prayers “contains his best writing since ‘Sometimes a Great Notion,’” he said.
By chance, the reissue of “KESEY” happened to coincide with Kesey’s own death, Eugene’s community reading project “Readin’ in the Rain” and the revival of the UO Press, Witte said. These three events could help with the sale of the book. “KESEY” is the first of five Northwest Review books that will be reissued by the UO Press.
“Most people regard Kesey as a very significant, major American writer,” he said, and “probably the most important writer to come out of the Northwest.”