"A ROAR OF PROTEST": VERY SCARCE PRESENTATION 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. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $12,500.

First edition of Kesey's most "popular and enduring" work, a distinctive presentation copy inscribed by him in red and black ink, "for N— Ken Kesey," in original dust jacket, housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box.

"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" (New York Times). 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.

Book fine; price-clipped dust jacket extremely good with several closed tears, light chipping to spine ends with front panel particularly bright and colorful. An exceptionally desirable inscribed copy.