“A ROAR OF PROTEST”: FIRST EDITION OF ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, BOLDLY INSCRIBED BY KEN KESEY

KESEY, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. New York: Viking, 1962. Octavo, original green cloth, original dust jacket. $10,500.

First edition of Kesey’s most “popular and enduring” work, boldly inscribed by Kesey: “For Maggie, Ken Kesey, 1994.”

"Ken Kesey's first novel remains his most popular and enduring… Cuckoo's Nest resonates with the classic theme of the individual rebelling against the controlling forces of society" (Books of the Century, 98). On publication in 1962, Time magazine called Cuckoo's Nest "a roar of protest against middlebrow society's Rules and the invisible Rulers who enforce them." Adapted to the stage in 1963, with Kirk Douglas in the lead, the novel was the basis for the highly successful 1975 film starring Jack Nicholson. First issue, with "that fool Red Cross woman" on page 9, lines 12-13, in first-issue dust jacket containing Kerouac's endorsement on the front flap. Owner gift inscriptions on front free endpaper. Tiny tear to half-title where Kesey's signature pressed through the paper.

Book near-fine, with a few spots of foxing to front endpaper and mild toning to bottom edge of cloth. Dust jacket very good, with some wear and light staining mainly to extremities, shallow chipping to spine ends and mild toning to spine. A desirable copy.