ACID TEST: HOW MUCH ARE A MERRY PRANKSTER'S PAPERS WORTH?

University Of Oregon Must Raise Cash To Keep Kesey's Stash; Grateful
For The Bus

EUGENE, Ore.-The University of Oregon's fealty to 1960s vibes recently
got a jolt of validation-if not psychedelic flashback-when an old
school bus slathered in swirly Day-Glo colors lumbered through campus,
blaring vintage rock-and-roll.

"Ken Kesey Day tomorrow! Be there or be square!" chanted U of O
employee Keri Aronson, standing alongside the bus as she cast leaflets
into a stream of students.

The vehicle was a replica of the "Further" bus that 1960s author Ken
Kesey once used to bear fellow travelers such as The Grateful Dead and
Timothy Leary. Now it's front-and-center in a budding controversy over
the writer, who authored best sellers "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest" and "Sometimes a Great Notion."

The bus is the new mascot in a U of O fund-raising push to keep Mr.
Kesey's papers, amid demands by the Kesey family to put up money for
the collection. The university began stockpiling papers from the
author, who is a 1957 alumnus, in the 1970s. After he died in 2001,
his family began working with the school to permanently house his papers.

Since then, the U of O has basked in the notoriety of its bad-boy
alum. The school launched a summer course in Kesey Studies. A campus
art gallery hangs Mr. Kesey's jail-house drawings. The library
displays the typed notes that became his fiction.

But recently, the Keseys and U of O hit a crossroads. Family members
say the novelist didn't leave much to his survivors, who include four
children and his 76-year-old widow Faye Kesey, who last week married
Mr. Kesey's long-time friend and fellow best-selling author, Larry
McMurtry. While film and book royalties still trickle in, Mr. Kesey's
son Zane and his younger sister Clare say their royalty checks rarely
exceed $10,000 a year. The money, says Zane Kesey, a 50-year-old
rancher, "always seems to come just in time, when another bill arrives."

In 2009, after Faye Kesey let it be known that the family wanted to
formalize the school's tenure as a repository for the writer's papers,
the university had the Kesey collection independently appraised. The
appraised value: $2.9 million.

That was when Ms. Kesey opened negotiations with U of O for the
payment she would need if the school wanted to keep the works. Now the
university has to raise cash or risk watching the Kesey collection
transfer to another institution.

Both the Kesey family and U of O are cagey about the price the school
must raise to keep the collection, or by when it must pony up. Both
sides say it's their sincere wish that the Kesey stash-which includes
diaries, letters, audiotapes and drawings-remain in Eugene.

Archivists treasure troves like Kesey's, especially in today's era of
electronic communications. "It's an opportunity to recreate a thought
process that we don't have a window into anymore," says James Fox,
head of special collections at the university's library. "People are
using emails and deleting. We have letters from Ken, we have journals."

Few believe the price will be less than seven figures. "At least $1
million is a safe assumption," says one university official, who
declined to be identified. That's a big amount in a state that had to
cut almost 12% of its university system's operating budget last year.
The strategy now is to raise the money from donors.

Kesey family members referred questions about the negotiations to Ms.
Kesey, who declined to comment.

For many on campus, losing the papers isn't an option. Mr. Kesey grew
up nearby. He played football and wrestled for University of Oregon,
which has the Ducks as its mascot. When he died, locals erected a
memorial in Eugene: a likeness of the author in his trademark
snap-brim cap, reading a book to a rapt audience.

"Ken was a Duck, he was a U of O guy," says Mr. Fox. "He was a
cultural figure throughout our state, the defining character for
Oregonians. He belongs here."

Top universities can be as competitive with archives as they are with
football. In 2008, the University of California at Berkeley lost to
UC-Santa Cruz in a bitter fight for The Grateful Dead archive. "That
was real heartbreak," says Kathleen Maclay, a UC Berkeley
spokeswoman.

All of which leads back to the recent day when "Further" was driving
around campus as part of U of O's "Are You On the Bus?" fund-raising
campaign. Publicity kicked off with a reunion of a handful of Mr.
Kesey's Merry Pranksters, the costumed revelers who traveled on the
original bus.

The campus's Ken Kesey Day also included lectures on his literary
legacy and actors reading from his letters. Some letters included Mr.
Kesey's descriptions of the antics of patients he observed while
working the night shift at a state mental asylum-the seeds of the
narrative that became "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest."

Zane Kesey, who was on hand to celebrate Ken Kesey Day, says it was
"great to have that many people respond." He didn't hesitate to
capitalize on the day by setting up a folding table to peddle
mini-replicas of "Further" and other Kesey souvenirs in the lobby of
a Eugene theater that was showing a new documentary, "Magic Trip: Ken
Kesey and His Search For A Kool Place."

The university's campaign is preparing to cast a wide fund-raising
net. Besides tapping Mr. Kesey's aging frat brothers and school paper
cronies, there's an A-list of Hollywood figures and Kesey fans from
the worlds of rock-and-roll, publishing and art. Grateful Dead members
have already given several thousand dollars, says U of O development
officer Lisa Manotti.

To date, the campaign has raised $175,000. And the university says it
realizes there are challenges ahead since the outspoken Mr. Kesey
antagonized almost as many people as he thrilled. Hollywood lore has
it that he lobbied for actor Gene Hackman to play the lead in "One
Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" instead of Jack Nicholson, who ultimately
got the role.

Says Ms. Manotti, "Jack Nicholson may be a problem." Mr. Nicholson
didn't return calls for comment.