Ed McClanahan

Ed McClanahan (born October 5, 1932) is an American novelist, essayist, and professor.

Biography

Edward Poage McClanahan was born in Brooksville, Kentucky in 1932 to Edward Leroy and Jesse (Poage) McClanahan. He attended school there and later in nearby Maysville, Kentucky where the family relocated in 1948. McClanahan graduated from Miami University with a B.A. in English in 1955 and from the University of Kentucky in 1958 with a M.A. in English. McClanahan taught English at Oregon State University, 1958-1962. He received a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in 1962 and remained at Stanford University as E. H. Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing until 1972. He later taught at the University of Montana (1973-1976), the University of Kentucky, and Northern Kentucky University. He was released from his contract at NKU before receiving tenure, which allowed him to complete his most recognized novel "The Natural Man". He married Katherine Andrews in 1957 and they had three children: Kristin, Caitlin, and Jess. In 1975, he married Cia White (daughter of journalist and writer William S. White) and they had two children: Annie June and William. McClanahan currently resides in Lexington, Kentucky with his third wife, Hilda.

Writing

McClanahan has been a writer since the mid 1950s with short stories, essays, and reviews in such magazines as "Esquire", "Playboy", and "Rolling Stone". In 1972 and 1974, he received "Playboy"'s award for nonfiction.

"The Natural Man" had its inception in 1961 and was finally published in 1983 to great acclaim. McClanahan has frequently thanked Northern Kentucky University for firing him as it allowed him the opportunity to finish the novel, which was completely rewritten from first to third person.

Publications

* "One Lord, One Faith, One Cornbread", Fred Nelson & Ed McClanahan (eds.) (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books0, 1975. ISBN 978-0-385-04220-8
* "The Natural Man" (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux), 1983. ISBN 978-0-374-21969-7
* "Famous People I Have Known" (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux), 1985. ISBN 978-0-374-15329-8
* "A Congress of Wonders" (Washington, DC: Counterpoint), 1996. ISBN 978-1-887178-12-9
* "My Vita, If You Will: The Uncollected Ed McClanahan" (Washington, DC: Counterpoint), 1998. ISBN 978-1-887178-77-8
* "Fondelle, or, The Whore with a Heart of Gold: A Report from the Field" (Monterey, KY: Larkspur Press), 2002.
* "A Foreign Correspondence" (Tucson: Sylph Publications), 2002. ISBN 978-0-9673004-4-3
* "Spit in the Ocean #7: All About Ken Kesey" (New York: Penguin Books), 2003. ISBN 978-0-14-200363-3
* "O The Clear Moment" (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint), 2008. ISBN 978-1-58243-430-8

References

* Bartholomew, W. E. "Ed McClanahan: A Descriptive Bibliography, 1954-2000" (Tucson: Sylph Publications), 1999. ISBN 978-0-9673004-0-5
* "Edward Poage McClanahan", "The Kentucky Encyclopedia", John E. Kleber (ed.) (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky), 1992. ISBN 0-8131-1772-0
* Sigelman, Lee. "Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish--and Tall?: Man and Society in "The Natural Man", "Journal of Kentucky Studies" (September 1985): 198-212.

External links

* [http://www.edmcclanahan.com/ McClanahan's website]