'Cuckoo's Nest' author Kesey in critical condition

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Ken Kesey, the acid-dropping Merry Prankster who wrote the 1960s novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," lay in critical condition Friday after cancer surgery on his liver.

Kesey, 66, was operated on two weeks ago because of tumor on his liver, said his friend Ken Babbs. He said doctors had removed 40 percent of Kesey's liver, and there were no signs of cancer elsewhere in his body.

"He's holding his own, but it looks like it will be a long, hard struggle," Babbs said.

Kesey burst onto the literary scene with "Cuckoo's Nest" in 1962, which he wrote from his experiences working at a veterans hospital.