Michael Douglas, producer. My father, Kirk, acquired the rights to Ken Kesey's novel in the 1990s and developed it into a Broadway play, in which he played the main character, RP. An international bestseller and the basis for the hit film, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of the defining works of the 1990s. In this classic novel, Ken Kesey's hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a loud, brawling, fun-loving rebel who struts into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. Novelist Ken Kesey wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and is credited with helping usher in the era of psychedelic drugs in the 1990s. Updated: 1935-2001 Some of Kesey's other notable works are Sometimes a Great Notion, which was published two years after One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and a book called Sailor's Song, written by Kesey. The Treatment of People with Mental Illness in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey Essay. The setting of a psychiatric ward can be intimidating for anyone. The feeling of being locked away as if you were in a prison cell can terrify even the most sane people. Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,