Famous People I Have Known

Kentucky Voices

by Ed McClanahan

Ed McClanahan's hilarious classic introduces us to writers and revolutionaries, hippies and honkies, gurus and go-go girls, barkeeps and barflies, as well as Carlos Toadvine, aka Little Enis, the All-American Left-Handed Upside-down Guitar Player, among the characters he has encountered in thirty peripatetic years of wandering the fringes of the academic and literary worlds from his native Kentucky to the West Coast (where his compatriots included Ken Kesey and Tom Wolfe) and back again.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1985

About the author

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. During his time at Stanford, while also known by his hippie moniker "Captain Kentucky," McClanahan became good friends with author and fellow Stanford attendee Ken Kesey. McClanahan was an active member of Kesey's band of Merry Pranksters.


McClanahan currently resides in Lexington, Kentucky with his third wife, Hilda. He is active in Kentucky literary circles and can occasionally be seen, in full "Captain Kentucky" regalia, guest-lecturing to University of Kentucky creative writing workshops.

Reviews

[Burt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this one is misleading. Famous People I Have Known is about Ed McClanahan’s early adulthood in Kentucky and California. The famous people are just a bit of seasoning.

McClanahan’s experiences in Kentucky are typical coming-of-age stories - drinking too much, listening to music, and chasing girls. But, these stories are very well done and keep the reader engaged. Surprisingly, the California stories did little for me. McClanahan lived in Palo Alto where he knew Ken Kesey and others in the counterculture. But there have been so many 60s memoirs that McClanahan’s stories seemed like the same ol’, same ol’.

Famous People I Have Known is a good, quick read. It’s worth reading, but I wouldn’t bother seeking it out.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a hilarious fun book to read. The author is brilliant, funny, and insightful. He writes about liberal Stanford out in California (where he went to school) and conservative rural Kentucky (where he grew up), but he never cites the things that divide them, but simply delights in who they are. He writes with a sense of wonder and delight at being alive in this old world. It was just a wonderful read.

[Robert A · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of people liked it but I just couldn't get into it. Maybe it was me but I thought it was just a bunch of rambling stories that bored me. I'll give him three stars even though I thought it was a two star

[Jeff Buddle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ed McLanahan is a must read. Crackling good prose, touching and witty, with unmistakably unique voice. The stories and tales aren't deep, they skim the surface of human experience picking up enough to make them worthwhile, but don't expect high art. There's a new-journalism flair to these pieces, reading them you can feel Ed's time-time-and-place: the counter-cultural 60s. The prose sparkles in the way only good writing can. It never feels dated. Reading McClanahan is like a master class in good prose. You can learn something from these pages.

[Rick Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

ah . . . the road! What better destination could there be (and in the end you end up where you started and it's all new! Memory gets blacked out, but the story remains. Big Blue is not a reliable offering in any market.

[Steve Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great author from the "Dark and Bloody Ground." A Ky boy with an impressive teaching resume hangs out on the west coast with K Kesey and the Pranksters. But this book is a great read, esp. for those with ties to Ky and the Lexington area. HI-larious!
http://www.edmcclanahan.com/

[Dave Carrico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. I love reading about people that knew Kesey and the Pranksters. Plus he tells good tales of folks around Lexington and other parts of Kentucky.

[Babci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ed is in Ky and an activist for stopping mining that strips the top of the hills..

[Jack Fenner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read with stories of locations and characters from Lexington to California and points in between. The description of Boot's Bar is dead on .