WRITERS UNDER THE INFLUENCE: Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey & LSD (Ch 2)

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In this second episode, we’re examining the lives of Allen Ginsberg, author of Howl, and Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This pair of talented authors rode the countercultural wave of free love, free thought and free expression that started as a swell in the 50s and crashed over America in the 60s and 70s. Allen and Ken crossed paths frequently during this time, brought together by mutual friends such as Jack Kerouac and Timothy Leary, and a mutual appreciation for LSD. Allen led the Beats in their movement to overhaul literature, then passed the revolutionary baton onto Ken, who led the hippies in a push to change the people and the country.

CREDITS -
This episode was written and narrated by Key Whiskey. Special thanks to Jarryd Doyle for editing the audio and voicing Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, and other voices featured throughout.

Allen Ginsberg 1926-1997

Ken Kesey 1935-2001

READ -
Now you know the writers, get to know their writing…

Allen Ginsberg
Howl and Other Poems (1956); Kaddish and Other Poems (1961); The Fall of America: Poems of These States (1973); White Shroud Poems (1986); Deliberate Prose (2000).

Ken Kesey
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1962); Sometimes A Great Notion (1964); Sailor Song (1992).

WATCH -
Too lazy to read? Here are the film adaptations.

Allen Ginsberg
Howl (2010) - starring James Franco.

Ken Kesey
Sometimes A Great Notion (1971) - starring Paul Newman; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) - starring Jack Nicholson.

SOURCES -

LSD
’LSD’. History, 21 Aug. 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-lsd.

Freeman, Shanna & Chandler, Nathan. ‘How LSD Works’. HowStuffWorks, 10 Dec. 2008, https://science.howstuffworks.com/lsd.htm

Stephenson, Scott. ‘LSD and the American Counterculture: Comrades in the Psychedelic Quest’. Burgmann Journal, iss. 3, pp. 41-46, 2014, https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n1679/pdf/book.pdf

Allen Ginsberg
’About Allen Ginsberg’. Poets.org, https://poets.org/poet/allen-ginsberg

Bryan, Sharon. ‘Allen Ginsberg’s Howl’. Sharon Bryan, http://sharonbryanpoet.com/poetics/allen-ginsbergs-howl/

Clellon Holmes, John. ‘This is the Beat Generation’. The New York Times Magazine, 16 Nov. 1952, https://www.litkicks.com/ThisIsTheBeatGeneration

Clines, Francis X. ‘Allen Ginsberg: Intimations of Mortality’. The New York Times, 11 Nov. 1984, https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/11/magazine/allen-ginsberg-intimations-of-mortality.html

Fentress Swanson, Abbie. ‘Allen Ginsberg’s “Kaddish” Gets the One-Man Show Treatment’. WNYC, 30 Sep. 2011, https://www.wnyc.org/story/161629-allen-ginsbergs-kaddish/

Ginsberg, Allen, et al. ‘From The Poem That Changed America: “Howl” Fifty Years Later’. The American Poetry Review, vol. 35, no. 2, 2006, pp. 3–10. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20683131

Parris, Matthew, host. ‘Michael Horovitz on Allen Ginsberg’. Great LIves, BBC, 17 Dec. 2013, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03lph8m

Jones, Lucy. ‘“A rocket up the backside of conformity” - how Allen Ginsberg’s Howl transformed pop’. The Guardian, 9 Oct. 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/08/how-allen-ginsbergs-howl-transformed-pop

Koenig, Rhoda. ‘The Howling’. New York Magazine, 26 Oct. 1992, pp. 95-96.

Miles, Barry. Allen Ginsberg: Beat Poet. Viking, London, 1989.

Pacini, Peggy. ‘City Lights and the Emergence of Beat Poetry: How Howl and Other Poems redefined Poetic and Cultural Boundaries in the mid-1950s’. IdeAs: Idées d’Amériques, 13 Jul. 2017, https://journals.openedition.org/ideas/1992#quotation

Podhoretz, Norman. ‘My War With Allen Ginsberg’. Commentary Magazine, Aug. 1997, https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/podhoretz/my-war-with-allen-ginsberg/

Riggs, Ransom. ‘The Starving, Naked, Hysterical Mind of Allen Ginsberg’. Neatorama, 25 Apr. 2014, https://www.neatorama.com/2014/04/25/The-Starving-Naked-Hysterical-Mind-of-Allen-Ginsberg/

Schumacher, Michael. Dharma Lion: A Biography of Allen Ginsberg, U of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2016.

Sterritt, David. The Beats: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, New York, 2013.

Watson, Steven. ‘Beat Bios: Allen Ginsberg’. Waiting For The Sun, 1998, http://archives.waiting-forthe-sun.net/Pages/ArtisticInfluences/Beats/BeatBios/ginsberg_bio.html

(L-R) William S. Burroughs, Lucien Carr & Allen Ginsberg.

Ken Kesey
Cain, Eric. ‘Ken Kesey: An Oregon Life’. OPB, 3 Jan. 2014, https://www.opb.org/television/programs/oregonexperience/segment/or-exp-ken-kesey/

Dodgson, Rick. It’s All a Kind of Magic: The Young Ken Kesey, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 2013.

Downes, Lawrence. 'In Mexico, On the Lam with Ken Kesey’. The New York Times, 23 Mar. 2008, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/travel/23Kesey.html

Elder, Rob. ‘Down on the peacock farm’. Salon, 17 Nov. 2001, https://www.salon.com/2001/11/16/kesey99/

Forester, Jeff. ‘Sparks fly upwards: Remembering Ken Kesey’. SFGate, 30 Nov. 2003, https://www.sfgate.com/living/article/Sparks-fly-upwards-Remembering-Ken-Kesey-2547350.php

Fried, Joshua. ‘What a Trip’. Stanford Magazine, Feb. 2002, https://stanfordmag.org/contents/what-a-trip

’Kesey’s mom at 100’. The Register-Guard, 21 Oct. 2016, https://www.registerguard.com/rg/opinion/34910328-78/keseys-mom-at-100.html.csp

Lord, Sterling. ‘When Kerouac Met Kesey’. The American Scholar, 25 Aug. 2011, https://theamericanscholar.org/when-kerouac-met-kesey/#.XsCsxC-r1QJ

Meek, Austin. ‘Poignant memories of an icy crash’. The Register-Guard, 19 Jan. 2014, https://www.registerguard.com/article/20140119/SPORTS/301199970

’Motley mourners bid Kesey farewell’. BBC News, 15 Nov. 2001, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1657414.stm

Musiker, Cy. ‘Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters—a Celebration of Going Further’. KQED, 18 Jun. 2014, https://www.kqed.org/news/139463/ken-kesey-and-the-merry-pranksters-a-celebration-of-going-further

Ken Kesey sitting on the hood of his bus, the Further.

MUSIC -
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro and outro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries such as the Free Music Archive and YouTube’s Audio Library. The intro features an excerpt from Margaret Fielding’s ‘I Could Write a Book’. The outro includes an excerpt from Artie Shaw and His Orchestra’s ‘I Could Write a Book’.

Discography
”White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane
“Mamas” by Josh Lippi & The Overtimers
“Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod
“Uncertain” by Unheard Music Concepts
“Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 - III. Poco Allegretto” by Berlin Symphony Orchestra
“Tikopia” by Kevin MacLeod
“Faster Does It” by Kevin MacLeod
“For Better or Worse” by Kai Engel
“I Only Have Eyes For You” by The Flamingos
“As I Figure” by Kevin MacLeod
“Vibe Ace” by Kevin MacLeod
“La Hacienda” by Apache Tomcat
“Rain” by Unheard Music Concepts
“Backed Vibes Clean” by Kevin MacLeod
“Acoustic Meditation” by Jason Shaw
“Back to the Woods” by Jason Shaw
“Step On” by Jahzzar 
“The Wrong Way” by Jahzzar
“In Another World” by Lobo Loco
“Rumble” by Link Wray
“Beware of the Fall” by Apache Tomcat
“Friend of the Devil” by The Grateful Dead
“Beguine: Sailing Trip” by Dee Yan-Kay
“That Never Dies” by Norma Rockwell
“Scubba Adventure” by Apache Tomcat
“Sensitive” by Podington Bear
“Tupelo Train” by Chris Haugen

Other Audio
A clip from Timothy Leary’s 1967 “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out” speech from the Human Be-In, San Francisco
A clip from the Sometimes A Great Notion (1971) trailer
A clip from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s (1975) Best Picture win at the 1976 Academy Awards

Allen Ginsberg leading a demonstration, advocating the use of marijuana.