Ken Kesey

Ken Babbs

It was around a sagebrush campfire in eastern Oregon that Kesey first heard the tale from his father - about the legendary "last go round" that took place at the original Pendleton Round Up in 1911. Hundreds of riders were competing for the first World Championship Broncbusting title, but it was one special trio of buckeroos that provided the drama: a popular black cowboy, George Fletcher; a Nez Perce Indian cowboy, Jackson Sundown; and a fresh-faced kid from Tennessee name of Johnathan E. Lee Spain. Who would walk away with the prize money and the silver-studded saddle? When the dust cleared, everyone knew they'd witnessed something extraordinary. Kesey has journeyed back into Oregon history to reclaim this long-remembered moment, beefed up the bare bones of fact, and whipped them into a full-blown rip-snorting Tale of the True West. Sixteen pages of rare Round Up photographs provide graphic testimony of the time. The tiny town of Pendleton is swollen to bursting that memorable weekend and bristling with colorful characters like Buffalo Bill Cody, wrestler Frank "The Cruel Crusher" Gotch, cowgirl Prairie Rose Henderson, and a formidable medicine man named Parson Montanic. From the teepees along the river to the teeming saloons on Main Street, Round Up fever blazes like a prairie fire. This story of love, sweat, and horseflesh is a unique Western, wild and wooly and full of fleas. Let 'er buck!

A Real Western

Last Go Round

It all began at a cocktail party for the Stanford writing class of 1958. Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs became cronies and embarked on a rollicking, rambunctious adventure that lasted almost half a century. This burlesque is their tale. They are the Merry Band of Pranksters. From their early days in La Honda, to their cross-country trip with Neal Cassady at the wheel of the psychedelic-painted bus Further, and back for the Acid Tests on the West Coast with the house band later to be known as the Grateful Dead, this is their real story. The large cast of characters, in addition to the Pranksters, Cassady, and the Dead, include the Hell's Angels, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsburg, Larry McMurtry, Wendell Berry, and a pickup-length sturgeon. We're along for the ride on the famous bus trip to Manhattan and the subsequent visit with Leary at Millbrook. Whether it's a Hell's Angels party at Kesey's house, the Berkeley Vietnam anti-war rally, Kesey's pot bust, the six months on the lam in Mexico, or further adventures with Garcia and the Dead, Cronies is a bullet train of a book, fast-paced and rich with action. With the ultimate move to Oregon and many of the Pranksters following close behind, Babbs and Kesey enjoyed a magical friendship and collaborations until Kesey passed away in 2001. Irreverent, unencumbered by social norms, yet literary and poetic, this is a view of the sixties and beyond from someone who was there and remembers it. Kind of...

Cronies

Summoning up the bare bones of Oregon lore, a rip-snorting tale of the true Old West pits three good friends against one another for the World Championship Broncbusting title during the first Pendleton Round-Up of 1911. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo.

Ken Babbs

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