Cronies

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...