Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Kesey, Ken. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (signed + frog stamp). VIKING Press, New York, 1962.
Price: US$2400.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Viking (1962) 1974. NY. 311 pages. 8vo. The 1st/1st of this title originally published by Viking hit the presses in 1962. This copy was printed in 1974 and copyright page states Twenty-second printing June 1974. DJ price of $6.00 intact on flap. Also states Viking Compass Edition Issued in 1964 by the Viking Press. This copy is BOLDLY SIGNED by KEN KESEY in a gold paint pen on front-free endpaper. For --, Ken Kesey. Ken Kesey also stamped a large multi-colored frog stamp to same endpaper. Book is about fine in clean, bright green cloth with 4 sharp corners. Yellow topstain. The only thing holding this book back from being flawless is a minor flaw: 3 bottom page edges having a tiny chip or folded-up chip (tiny). This flaw hardly detracts from this excellent copy. Most minor shelf-wear to edges. Flaws are overstated. This book is in excellent, crisp condition. DJ is in the famous design as the 1st printing with cover design/art by Paul Bacon. DJ is bright and colorful. Black edges are nearly impossible to keep free of flaws and this copy is no different. Some of the black color has rubbed off at corners and along contours. As a result of the rubbing on DJ, we have graded it VG++ . Of the few signed Viking copies available, this is a beautiful book and a fine alternative to the signed 1st printing which will set you back a cool $ 7K.
Seller: Medium Rare Books, Mountainside, NJ, U.S.A.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. New York: Viking Press, 1962.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Octavo, green cloth lettered in gilt; multi-color dust jacket, second state without Kerouac blurb, slight edgewear and small chip. First edition, second printing. A presentation copy, inscribed to Michael McCurdy: "For Michael Anew? Ken Kesey," on the front endpaper; with unidentified signature on the back endpaper. McCurdy (1942-2016), the award-winning children's illustrator, founded Penmaen Press, which published works by Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and other Kesey contemporaries. A remarkable presentation copy.
Seller: North Star Rare Books & Manuscripts, Sheffield, MA, U.S.A.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.. The Viking Press, New York, 1962.
Price: US$3500.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of the author's classic first book. Octavo, original cloth. Near fine in a very good first-issue dust jacket with some expert restoration. Jacket design by Paul Bacon. Housed in a custom clamshell box. 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.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Ken Kesey. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest SIGNED. The Viking Press, New York, 1962.
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey. Signed by the author Ken Kesey on a professionally affixed cut page from another book. First edition, first printing "Published in 1962 by The Viking Press, Inc." on the copyright page. First issue with "that fool Red Cross woman" on page 9, and "It's the plump Red Cross woman named Gwen-doe-lin, with the blond hair the patients are always arguing about" on pages 85-86. With its original first issue dust jacket with the single line blurb from Jack Kerouac on the bottom of the front flap. Original $4.95 price present. The original dust jacket is in very good minus condition. Chipping and creasing to the extremities, most noticeable at the flap folds, spine ends and the top of the rear panel. Spine is sun-faded. The book is also in very good minus condition. Some noticeable staining to the green cloth boards. Cloth is worn away at the corners and spine ends. Previous owner's name and address stamped at the bottom of the title page. Please view the many other rare titles available for purchase at our store. We are always interested in purchasing individual or collections of fine books. Inventory #(K9-5).
Seller: Ernestoic Books, Clarence, NY, U.S.A.
Kesey, Ken [Kirk Douglas]. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.. The Viking Press, New York, 1962.
Price: US$7200.00 + shipping
Description: 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.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Price: US$7500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Octavo, 311pp. A crisp, clean copy, about fine, in the publisher's green cloth. In a very good first-issue dust jacket with mild fading (as often) to the spine, and some shallow wear to the spine ends. A singular copy, with a significant inscription by Malcolm Cowley on the front free endpaper: "This is the very rare first printing, withdrawn from the bookstores because of a passage the [sic] Gwen Davis claimed to be libelous. Malcolm Cowley." Kesey was one of Cowley's writing students at Stanford, and Cowley helped Kesey get this hit novel published at Viking. Davis, a therapist steeped in the 60s counterculture (she was famous for "nude encounter therapy") believed the minor character of Gwendolyn (spelled "Gwen-doe-lin") was based on her, and she threatened Viking with a lawsuit, which resulted in a number of first printings being removed from bookstores, and the book quickly reprinted with the character changed to "Public Relation," a heavyset man who cynically promotes the institution to unwitting outsiders. The first issue is uncommon, particularly with such a meaningful inscription from one of Kesey's most important colleagues. An excellent copy. (Note that the book is NOT signed by Kesey.).
Seller: Cleveland Book Company, ABAA, Rocky River, OH, U.S.A.
Kesey, Ken. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. The Viking Press, New York, 1962.
Price: US$10000.00 + shipping
Description: Inscribed first printing of the influential literary achievement by a towering figure of the counterculture. The basis for one of the defining films of 1970s cinema, Kesey's novel was first published more than a decade earlier, at the dawn of the '60s, and is all the more shocking for that original context. The novel is set in a men's psychiatric hospital among inmates who, afflicted variously by mental illness, minority status, criminal convictions, and aggressive nonconformity, are all subject to the indignities and cruelties of nurses and doctors alike. Kesey's sadistic Nurse Ratched lives on as a quasi-folk myth, like the real Lizzie Borden and the fictional Annie Wilkes; her name is perhaps better known even than Kesey's own. An enduring attack on the establishment's power to punish and enforce. 8'' x 5.5''. Original green cloth, spine lettered in yellow. Original unclipped color dust jacket designed by Paul Bacon, photographic portrait of Kesey by Hank Kranzler on rear panel. Beige topstain. [8], 311, [1] pages. Kesey's inscription scrawled in black ink across front paste-down ("For Darrel / Kesey 1993"); previous owner's signature penned to front endpaper. Jacket spine only just sunned; a touch of rubbing at spine folds, faint scratching (close inspection only) on front panel. Mild patches of offsetting and small stamp "Fe 21 '62" to verso of jacket. Small water spot to cloth. Presents beautifully. Very good in very good plus jacket.
Seller: Type Punch Matrix, Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The Viking Press, New York, 1962.
Price: US$10000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, first printing, first state with "fool Red Cross woman" on page 9. Signed by Ken Kesey on the dedication page. Bound in publisher's green cloth with spine lettered in yellow. Near Fine with light tanning to pages. In a Near Fine unclipped ($4.95) dust jacket with five-word Jack Kerouac blurb on the front flap, with light wear to the extremities, fading to the spine, a small spot of browning to the front flap and blindside of the spine panel. Served as the basis for the 1975 film starring Jack Nicholson.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.