Ein Abend zu Ken Keseys Roman ›Seemannslied‹ und Alaska-Reisebericht der Übersetzerin Milena Adam

In the organizer's words:

Ken Kesey, born in 1935 in La Junta, Colorado, studied creative writing at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, from 1959. After his worldwide success with 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (first published by MÄRZ in 1972), Kesey founded a commune near San Francisco. They called themselves the Merry Pranksters.

They toured across America in an old school bus, which they painted brightly and named Furthur. At the so-called acid tests, Ken Kesey invited the public to experience the mind-expanding effects of LSD for themselves, which were accordingly celebrated as pioneering. Accompanied by music and colors, they wanted to explore new forms of perception. In the meantime, the tour became a myth, recorded in Tom Wolfe's book 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'. In the 90s, Kesey finally retired to his farm in Eugene, Oregon. There he worked on his last novel 'Seemannslied'. He died in November 2001.

Milena Adam, born in Hamburg in 1991. She lives and works as an editor, translator and interpreter from French and English in Berlin.