Merry Pranksters

Primary Sources

Documents, period press, film, recordings, posters and letters from the events themselves — as opposed to later retellings. 32 sources so far, oldest first. Each links to the holder; we don’t host them. Where a source is only described in a catalog, the card says so.

  • Periodicalsource1920–2012

    Oregon Daily Emerald, digitized run (University of Oregon student newspaper)

    Ken Kesey

    Historic Oregon Newspapers (University of Oregon)

    Kesey is listed as an Emerald columnist in a 1956 yearbook entry (per a search snippet). Search the run for “Kesey”; coverage of his Eugene years is plausible but not individually confirmed here.

  • Documentsource1950-12-17

    Neal Cassady: The Joan Anderson Letter (surviving text)

    Neal Cassady

    International Times

    Cassady’s letter to Kerouac that influenced On the Road; the surviving portion is also in Collected Letters, 1944–1967.

  • Textsource1950-12-17

    “Love to you, anyhow” — Cassady’s Joan Anderson Letter

    Neal Cassady

    Emory University — Dream Machine blog

    Cites the Jack Kerouac Collection at Emory; check the finding aid for what the library holds. Page could not be read by our checker (bot wall or script-rendered); known from a search listing.

  • Periodicalsource1956

    Researcher finds first recording of Ginsberg’s “Howl” (Reed College, 1956)

    Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder

    History News Network (Reed College tape)

    Account of the 35-minute reel from Ginsberg and Snyder’s February 1956 Reed visit — the earliest known recording of Ginsberg reading “Howl.” The article is secondary; the tape is held at Reed.

  • Documentsource1965

    Drive Five — Neal Cassady tapes, Fall 1965 (transcribed text)

    Neal Cassady

    New York Public Library — Research Catalog (Berg Collection)

    Catalog record: the soundtrack was taken from tapes Cassady made in fall 1965; the Berg Collection holds the transcribed text. Page could not be read by our checker; known from a search listing.

  • Periodicalsource1965-05-17

    The Motorcycle Gangs: Losers and Outsiders (reprint of the 1965 Nation article)

    Hunter S. Thompson

    Encyclopedia.com (reprint of The Nation, May 17, 1965)

    The article that grew into Hell’s Angels (1966). Reprint, so check wording against the original issue.

  • Periodicalsource1965–1980

    Berkeley Barb digital archive (Aug 1965 – Apr 1980)

    Counterculture press

    Berkeley Public Library

    Scanned issues of the underground paper that mixed radical politics with psychedelic art; search for Kesey, Acid Tests, the Be-In.

  • Documentsource1966-01

    Trips Festival program, Longshoremen’s Hall, Jan 21–23, 1966

    Stewart Brand

    New York Public Library — Research Catalog

    Catalog record: Stewart Brand credited as author; printed by Bob Carr and Wes Wilson. Access restricted — permission needed from the holding division. Page could not be read by our checker (bot wall or script-rendered); known from a search listing.

  • Imagesource1966-01

    Trips Festival handbill, Longshoremen’s Hall, 1966 (poster dealer listing)

    Merry Pranksters

    Wolfgang’s Vault (commercial)

    Commercial listing with a reproduction; useful for the artwork, not an archive.

  • Imagesource1966-04

    Dress the way you are — Trips, Longshoremen’s Hall, April 22–24 [1966] (poster)

    Grateful Dead, Merry Pranksters

    Grateful Dead Archive Online (UC Santa Cruz)

    Digitized poster; the UCSC reprint-collection finding aid says GDAO holds images of these posters.

  • Periodicalsource1966-05

    Ken “Cuckoo Nest” Kesey: One Who Wigged Out

    Ken Kesey

    The Village Voice (archive)

    Contemporary report on his disappearance and the Telegraph Hill arrest with Mountain Girl.

  • Videosource1966-10-25

    Ken Kesey press conference in Redwood City (KRON-TV film)

    Ken Kesey

    San Francisco State University — DIVA

    Filmed at the San Mateo County Courthouse, reporter Art Brown.

  • Audiosource1966-10-31

    Grateful Dead live at Winterland Arena, 1966-10-31 (Acid Test Graduation)

    Grateful Dead, Merry Pranksters

    Grateful Dead Archive Online (UC Santa Cruz)

    Recording of the Acid Test “graduation” event.

  • Videosource1968

    Revolution (San Francisco documentary, 1968)

    Haight-Ashbury scene

    Internet Archive (community upload)

    A period film of the San Francisco scene, directed by Jack O’Connell. Community upload; rights unclear.

  • Imagesource1969link unverified

    Woodstock, 1969 (John Dominis photographs for LIFE)

    Woodstock

    Briscoe Center for American History, UT Austin

    One of a set of John Dominis photographs for LIFE’s 1969 coverage. The site shows a bot check to automated visitors, so our checker could not open it; known from a search listing.

  • Videosource1987

    L.S.D.: The Beyond Within (BBC documentary, community upload)

    Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, Albert Hofmann

    Internet Archive (community upload)

    Cited on Wikiquote as the source of a Kesey quotation. Date from that citation, not the Archive record; rights unclear — it is a link, not an endorsement.

  • Audiosource1987-07-19

    Bob Dylan & the Grateful Dead, Eugene, Oregon, 1987 (KLCC broadcast recording)

    Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead

    Internet Archive (radio-broadcast archive)

    A concert recording from a Eugene show, via a KLCC broadcast; community upload.

  • Periodicalsource1990-10-01

    Further Inquiry (Kirkus review)

    Ken Kesey

    Kirkus Reviews

    Listing for the book, photographed by Ron Bevirt and Kesey; release date Oct. 1, 1990.

  • Periodicalsource2001-11-11

    Author Ken Kesey, icon of the 1960s drug culture, dies

    Ken Kesey

    The Seattle Times (archive)

    Date taken from the archive URL.

  • Periodicalsource2006-01-08

    Furthur gets new lease on life

    Furthur (the bus) · interviewed by Jeff Barnard (Associated Press)

    The Spokesman-Review (AP)

    Source for the account that Roy Sebern painted “Furthur” as a one-word poem and learned later it was misspelled.

  • Videosource2011-10

    Living Color, Living Sound (Washington Rainbow Gathering documentary)

    Rainbow Family

    Internet Archive (community upload)

    A documentary by StarLynn Jacobs of a 2011 Rainbow Gathering (a recent, secondary view of a long-running tradition).

  • Periodicalsource2013

    Oregon buys Ken Kesey’s personal papers for $1.4M

    Ken Kesey

    KVAL

    University of Oregon’s 2013 purchase of the Kesey papers.

  • Periodicalsource2014

    On the road with Kesey’s drug-free Acid Test

    Zane Kesey

    The Daily Beast

    Year inferred from coverage of the 50th-anniversary trip; describes a second bus, “Further” with an e, bought by Ken Kesey in 1974.

  • Documentsource2017-10-06

    Fleeing marijuana charges, Ken Kesey hid from the FBI — his FBI file

    Ken Kesey

    MuckRock

    Covers the Bureau’s 1966 pursuit of Kesey after he fled to Mexico; the released file is embedded or linked on the page. Date shown is the MuckRock post. Page could not be read by our checker (bot wall or script-rendered); known from a search listing.

  • Videosource2021

    We Are As Gods (documentary on Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog)

    Stewart Brand

    Internet Archive

    A documentary by Jason Sussberg and David Alvarado — secondary, not period material; the Archive lists 2021-03-27 as its upload date.

  • Periodicalsource2026-08-17

    After almost six decades on the farm, Ken Kesey’s Furthur bus leaves Oregon

    Furthur (the bus), Zane Kesey

    Lookout Eugene-Springfield

    Reports the bus leaving the Pleasant Hill farm for San Francisco; includes Kesey’s “only one bus” line.

  • Periodicalsource2026-09-04

    Grateful Dead exhibit featuring Ken Kesey’s Furthur bus opens Saturday in SF

    Furthur (the bus)

    SFist

  • Documentsource

    Ken Kesey & The Merry Pranksters (The Sixties Project exhibit)

    Ken Kesey, Merry Pranksters

    University of Virginia Library

    Exhibit with period material including pages on the bus and the Further Inquiry.

  • Videosource

    Bloodied Ken Kesey press conference (KRON-TV film)

    Ken Kesey

    San Francisco State University — DIVA

  • Documentsource

    “First Party at Ken Kesey’s with Hell’s Angels” (poem)

    Allen Ginsberg

    AllenGinsberg.org

    Ginsberg’s own account of the La Honda party.

  • Documentsource

    Furthur Down the Road Foundation — FAQ (spelling of the bus name)

    Furthur (the bus)

    Furthur Down the Road Foundation

    States both spellings are “correct”; the Foundation settled on “Furthur” for practical reasons.

  • Documentsource

    The Diggers Papers No. 33: “What is the Diggers?”

    The Diggers

    Arthur Magazine (scans of Digger documents)

    One of a numbered series of scanned Digger/Communication Company documents from roughly late 1966–1967; check the page for the document’s own date.

Still looking for

  • Digitized runs of the San Francisco Oracle (only a commercial CD-ROM facsimile found so far).
  • The Pranksters’ 1964 bus-trip audio and film — held by UCLA; originals are not available for research use.
  • Hunter S. Thompson’s La Honda / Hells Angels tapes — location unconfirmed.
  • Kesey’s Spit in the Ocean issues and letters — described in finding aids, not online.
  • Period newspaper pages (California Digital Newspaper Collection, Oregon papers) on the 1965–66 arrests and trials.

Holdings are described on the archives list (15 collections).