Ken Kesey published his first book 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest' in 1962. Set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, the narrative serves as a study of institutional processes and the human mind. The novel was adapted in to a play originally for Broadway and then off Broadway by Dale Wasserman in 1963. Bo Goldman adapted the novel into a film of the same title in 1975, directed by Milos Forman it won five Academy Awards.
Ken Kesey started writing the novel in 1959, when he published it in 1962, America was in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement that brought about deep changes to the way psychology and psychiatry were managed and viewed. The novel is a direct product of Ken Kesey's time working the night shift as an orderly in a mental health facility.
The title of the novel, play, and Film actually comes from a nursery rhyme:
'Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn,
Wire, briar, limber lock
One flew East
One flew west
and one flew over the cuckoo's nest'
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