One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
By Ken Kesey
 
First US edition, first impression: The Viking Press, 1962.
 
Original emerald green cloth with spine lettered in gilt.
 
Very good or better: clean and square, cloth bright and unfaded, spine lettering crisp; light toning to the text block edges; a previous owner’s name inked to the front paste-down. A couple of faint marks to upper board and a few extremely faint spots to bottom and fore-edges. Internally fresh.

The dust jacket very good: Some rubbing and creasing to extremities, small chips and nicks at the spine ends, and general surface wear; spine panel a little sunned with a couple of fairly faint tape marks to verso; no significant loss; price intact.

Kesey’s first novel and one of the defining works of post-war American literature, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest established its author at a single stroke, blending countercultural energy with a powerful critique of institutional authority.
 
The novel achieved an even wider cultural reach through the celebrated 1975 film adaptation directed by Miloš Forman and starring Jack Nicholson, which went on to win five Academy Awards and helped secure the book’s enduring place in the modern canon.
 
The first US edition is not common in presentable condition, with the correct first-issue dust jacket. A sound and attractive example of this landmark debut.