One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

KESEY, Ken [Kirk Douglas].

$7,200.00

Item Number: 138471

New York: The Viking Press, 1962.

First edition of the author’s classic first book. Octavo, original cloth. Boldly signed by Kirk Douglas on the half-title page. Douglas starred in the stage version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as McMurphy. Additionally laid in is a note from Kesey which reads, “For Henry: The wind blows the plumtree branches, this way…that. Ken Kesey.” Near fine in a very good first-issue dust jacket. Jacket design by Paul Bacon. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box by the Harcourt Bindery.

Published in February 1962, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a great critical and commercial success. Over the subsequent decades the book's reputation and readership swelled as millions recognized Kesey's psychiatric ward as a not-so-fantastic metaphor for a modern world in which bureaucracy and technology combine to diminish humanity, individuality and diversity. Adapted to the stage in 1963, with Kirk Douglas in the lead, and was the basis for the highly successful 1975 film directed by Milos Forman and starring Jack Nicholson. Considered to be one of the greatest films ever made, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ranks number 33 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Movies list. It was the second to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, and Screenplay) following It Happened One Night in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991 by The Silence of the Lambs. It also won numerous Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards.