Further (sometimes, Furthur) was a 1939 International Harvester school bus purchased by author Ken Kesey in 1964 for $1,500 from Andre Hobson in Atherton, California. The bus was stripped down and remodeled inside and out for a psychedelic excursion across the country with Kesey and his Merry Pranksters on board. The bus was named by artist Roy Sebern, who painted the word “Further” on the destination placard as a kind of one-word poem and inspiration to keep going whenever the bus broke down.
Beat legend Neal Cassady was the driver of the famous bus on its original trip to New York for the publication of Kesey's new book, Sometimes a Great Notion. The trip was filmed by the Merry Pranksters. Other Further trips included an anti-Vietnam war rally in 1966 and Woodstock in 1969 (without Kesey). More can be read about the adventures of the Merry Pranksters on Further in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, for which a movie directed by Gus Van Sant is in development.[1]
The Smithsonian Institution sought to acquire the bus,[2] but refused to pay to have the bus delivered.
Ken Kesey parked the bus in a swamp on his farm in 1989 when he acquired a new bus.
In November 2005, Further was pulled out of the swamp by Zane Kesey and a group of the original Merry Pranksters with the intent of restoring it.[3][4]
Both buses currently reside at Kesey's farm (where his widow still lives) in Pleasant Hill, Oregon.
The two top photos are of the second bus, a 1947 harvester, painted by Kesey and the Pranksters in 1990.[3]
The correct name of both of Ken Kesey's buses is Further.[5][6][7] The original bus had Furthur written in the destination sign for a brief period and Tom Wolfe called the bus Furthur in his book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. The first Further died shortly after a trip to Woodstock. The second bus (a 1947 International Harvester) was created in the late 1980s. The second bus is also called Further (not Further 2) and is not a replica.
The "Great Smithsonian Prank" was a prank on the media. The local TV station came to the farm where Kesey and friends were painting the new bus and later aired "Ken Kesey has restored the original Further and is taking it to the Smithsonian". The next morning a variety of national media were asking to "come along on the trip to the Smithsonian". The media rode along on Further for about a week thinking it was the original bus and that it was going to be donated to the museum.[8][9]
In the 2007 film Across the Universe, a fictionalized version of the bus appears - this one a Chevrolet, bearing the name "Beyond" in place of "Further".
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