The Merry Pranksters
Under the name The Merry Pranksters , a group of Californian artists, desperados and LSD advocates got together in the early 1960s to travel through the USA in a brightly painted school bus, a so-called art car called “ Furthur ” (later “ Further ”) to drive and organize LSD happenings. In the so-called acid tests , the interested public was invited to try the mind-expanding effects of the drug, which was still legal at the time, and described as progressive.
Prank is an English word that means something like rascal or prank. A prankster is a person who drives a lot of rough jokes, which can be quite profound. The founder of the pranksters was Ken Kesey , the author of the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . The Merry Pranksters chosethe band Grateful Dead to accompany the acid tests.
Better-known members were Kesey's friends Ken Babbs and Neal Cassady , Carolyn Adams ( aka Mountain Girl, later wife of Jerry García ), Wavy Gravy , Paul Krassner , Stewart Brand , Del Close , Paul Foster , George Walker, Sandy Lehmann-Haupt .
Members of the group lived in the commune on the Hog Farm .
The writer Tom Wolfe accompanied partly the journeys of the Merry Pranksters and described the experience in his book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (dt. Undercurrent ).
literature
- Tom Wolfe: Under power. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-8218-0172-7 .
- Tom Wolfe: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Heyne, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-453-40621-6 .
Web links
- Hippie forefathers Merry Pranksters, “Class trip on LSD” , commented photo series, by Airen (author) , one day , October 26, 2015
- Tom Wolfe on "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test", "I always performed in a suit and tie" , Interview with Tom Wolfe , conducted by Airen (author) and photo series, one day , October 12, 2016
- Story on the NoFurthur website , English