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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Last Go Round

1994 novel by Ken Kesey

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ6494382 ↗
Source-derived summary

Last Go Round is a 1994 novel written by Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs. It was Kesey's last novel and is about the famous "Last Go Round" that took place at the original Pendleton Round-Up in 1911. The book contains references to real historical figures, and was published with photographs from the early days of the Pendleton rodeo. However, the story is written as a tall tale, with characters and feats that are larger than life.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Last Go Round” is 1994 novel by Ken Kesey. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Last, Round and novel, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1994, 1911—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1994. For this dossier, Last, Round and novel is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1994 novel by Ken Kesey” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6494382. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994 and 1911.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Last Go Round”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Last Go Round primary sources, Last Go Round archive and Last research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Last Go Round”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Last Go Round” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.