HomeCC-149 Ed McClanahan Papers

CC-149 Ed McClanahan Papers

Sketch

Ed McClanahan, Kentucky writer, is a native of Brooksville, KY, where he was born in 1932. After graduating from Miami (Ohio) University (AB, 1955) and the University of Kentucky (MA, 1958), McClanahan moved to the West Coast. He was a writing instructor at Oregon State University from 1958 to 1962. In 1962 He received a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, a two-year creative writing fellowship at Stanford University, and remained at Stanford University as E. H. Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing until 1972. During his time at Stanford, McClanahan became good friends with author and fellow Stanford attendee Ken Kesey. McClanahan was an active member of Kesey's band of Merry Pranksters. His memoir, Famous People I Have Known, humorously recollects many of his Prankster experiences. McClanahan later taught at the University of Montana (1973–1976), the University of Kentucky, and Northern Kentucky University. McClanahan's books include The Natural Man (a novel), Famous People I Have Known (a serio-comic autobiography), A Congress of Wonders (three novellas), and My Vita, If You Will (a miscellany of previously uncollected fiction, non-fiction, reviews, and commentary). In 2002, Larkspur Press (Monterey, KY) published McClanahan's memoir, Fondelle: or, The Whore with a Heart of Gold, in a limited edition. O, The Clear Moment, his "implied autobiography," was published by Counterpoint in 2008. His most recent work is I Just Hitched In From the Coast: The Ed McClanahan Reader (Counterpoint 2011), a collection of 14 stories. He currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

Collection Description

In 1987 McClanahan donated to the Centre College Special Collections a group of his papers consisting of manuscript and typescript writings. The papers were loosely organized, although many were in folders labeled by the author. An attempt was made to organize the collection around McClanahan's first three published works, although this was sometimes accomplished using vague internal evidence. This first group comprises record groups CC-149.1 through CC-149.3. Also included were several print editions of the published works, located in CC-149.4. In 1992-93 McClanahan donated a second group of papers. These were also relatively disorganized. The College allowed the collection be removed from the Special Collections and sent to an outside agency. When the papers were returned, any organization that did exist had been completely destroyed. An attempt was made to organize the collection by separating the papers into three groups. CC-149.5A consists of writings with a title arranged alphabetically; CC-149.5B of writings without title; and CC-149.5C of miscellaneous writings and reviews. No attempt was made to integrate this second donation into the first. CC-149.6 forms a collection of completely unorganized material, primarily miscellaneous print journals, newspaper clippings, etc. In 2013 McClanahan donated a third very small group of papers. This forms CC-149.7. Any researcher using this collection should bear in mind the original condition of organization as received by the Special Collections and the likelihood that some papers have been misassigned.

CC-149.1 The Natural Man

Folder 1 Art (typescript with revisions; photocopy of typescript)

Folder 2 Art (photocopy of typescript with minor revisions)

Folder 3 Art (typescript with revisions; 3 sheet holograph)

Folder 4 C+ (typescript with revisions)

Folder 5 C+ (typescript with revisions)

Folder 6 C+ (photocopy of typescript with revisions)

Folder 7 C+ (photocopy of typescript with revisions)

Folder 8 Consider the Lilies, How they Grow (typescript with revisions)

Folder 9 Consider the Lilies, How they Grow. Section III (first draft manuscript)

Folder 10 Consider the Lilies, How they Grow (original manuscript)

Folder 11 Consider the Lilies, How they Grow (manuscript)

Folder 12 Consider the Lilies, How they Grow (projected Boone opening)

Folder 13 From a Considerable Height (original manuscript)

Folder 14 From a Considerable Height (typescript)

Folder 15 From a Considerable Height (original 1st draft)

Folder 16 From a Considerable Height (typescript)

Folder 17 From a Considerable Height (typescript with revisions)

Folder 18 From a Considerable Height (typescript with revisions)

Folder 19 From a Considerable Height (typescript with revisions)

Folder 20 My Job at the New Artistic Motion Picture Theatre (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 21 Natural Man (typescript "old draft typed")

Folder 22 Natural Man (original)

Folder 23 Natural Man (original)

Folder 24 Natural Man (original)

Folder 25 Natural Man (original)

Folder 26 Natural Man (master galley)

Folder 27 Natural Man (master galley)

Folder 28 Natural Man (master galley)

Folder 29 Natural Man (edited copy)

Folder 30 The Greatest Writing Ever Wrote (photocopy of typescript with revisions)

Folder 31 The Greatest Writing Ever Wrote(typescript)

Folder 32 "Solitary, Poor, Brutish, Brutish - and Tall?: Man and Society in the Natural Man" by Lee Sigelman (typescript)

Folder 33 Offical documents and legal papers

Folder 34 Miscellaneous

CC-149.2 A Hell of a Note

Folder 1 Manila folders labeled "Corrections for Augusta copy" (photocopy of typescript); A Hell of a Note (photocopy of typescript with revisions); III. Monk Mahoneys Advent (photocopy of typescript with revisions); Untitled (photocopy of typescript with revisions); IV. Fornicating the Canine (typescript with revisions); V. My Job at the New Artistic Motion Picture Theatre (typescript with revisions); VII. The Birth of the Swedish Twins (typescript with revisions); X. Omnia Vincit Amor (typescript with revisions); Untitled (typescript with revisions); Untitled (typescript with revisions)

Folder 2 Untitled (typescript with revisions); Yellow pad (holograph, 1st line "World's greatest sexual hygiene film"); Untitled (1 sheet typescript with notes); Folder labeled "Notes & plans: Part 1"; Folder labeled "Notes & plans: Part 2" (typescript and holograph sheets); Art! (photocopy of typescript with revisions); Untitled (3 sheets holograph)

Folder 3 A Hell of a Note (photocopy of typescript with minor revisions)

Folder 4 A Hell of a Note (photocopy of typescript with revisions)

Folder 5 A Hell of a Note (typescript with minor revisions)

Folder 6 A Hell of a Note (typescript with minor revisions)

Folder 7 A Hell of a Note (photocopy of typescript with minor revisions)

Folder 8 Spiral bound notebook

Folder 9 C+ (photocopy of typescript in folder labeled "C+ - original rough cum detritis")

Folder 10 A Hell of a Note (typescript with revisions in folder labeled "#2 working copy - uncorrected"); Untitled (2 sheets typescript); Untitled (typescript with revisions in folder labeled "Worksheets & Misc."); English 201-3 - Autobiography (1 sheet typescript); Letter to Strachan, dated September 2, 1980 (1 sheet typsecript); Untitled (typescript with revisions in folder labeled "Novel out-takes")

Folder 11 A Hell of a Note (photocopy of typescript in folder labeled "M.M.'s picture"); VI. This Business of Liberty (typescript with revisions)

CC-149.3 Famous People I Have Known

Folder 1 Miscellaneous; labeled by author "Book stuff"; letters to and from agents (includes typescript with revisions of Famous People I Have Known)

Folder 2 Little Enis Pursues His Muse (photocopy of typescript submitted to Playboy); letter to Robert Crumb dated March 27, 1985

Folder 3 Toadvine Regained (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 4 Country music - miscellaneous

Folder 5 The Day the Lampshades Breathed (photocopy of typescript - 2 copies)

Folder 6 Drowning in the Land of Sky-Blue Waters (typescript with minor revisions)

Folder 7 Drowning in the Land of Sky-Blue Waters (typescript with revisions)

Folder 8 Elbow Room (typescript with revisions - 2 copies)

Folder 9 Yellow legal pad (holograph; 1st line "So we drag ass into Lafayette about 2 in the afternoon")

Folder 10 Famous People I Have Known (labeled "Rough draft of version that appeared in Esquire, 1969")

Folder 11 Famous People I Have Known (typescript chapters with revisions)

Folder 12 Famous People I Have Known (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 13 Famous People I Have Known (galley proof)

Folder 14 Famous People I Have Known (1972 version with Wendell Berry introduction - complete draft)

Folder 15 Famous People I Have Known (1985 original final draft)

Folder 16 Famous People I Have Known (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 17 Famous People I Have Known (Master set)

Folder 18 Famous People I Have Known (Afterward)

Folder 19 Famous People I Have Known (Master galleys)

Folder 20 Grateful Dead I Have Known (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 21 Highway 52 Revisited (typescript with revisions; photocopy of typesript - 4 copies)

Folder 21B Highway 52 Revisited (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 22 Ken Kesey, Jean Genet, the Revolution, Et Moi (typescript with revisions); Genet (photocopy of typescript with revisions); People (June 24, 1985)

Folder 23 Ken Kesey, Jean Genet, the Revolution, Et Moi (typesceipt with revisions)

Folder 24 Miscellaneous (typescript and photocopy of typescript, some with revisions)

Folder 25 Saturday Night; Honkytonking in Hard Times (outline - 2 copies); Let Us Begin; Bon Ton Roulet (2 copies)

Folder 26 Saturday Night (typescript with revisions - 2 copies); Miscellaneous letters; Country Star News (April 1976)

Folder 27 Famous People I have Known - miscellaneous chapters (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 28 How to Weave a Tangled Web (typescript)

Folder 29 How to Weave a Tangled Web (typescript with revisions)

Folder 30 Why I Live Where I Live (typescript with revisions)

Folder 31 Excerpts from Famous People I Have Known

Folder 32 Famous People I Have Known - flap copy (photocopy of typescripts with revisions)

Folder 33 Untitled (1st line - "We picked up on zydeco music for the first time in Austin"; typescript with revisions with holograph)

Folder 34 Miscellaneous (holograph on yellow legal tablet)

Folder 35 Famous People I Have Known (photocopy of typescript); My Job at the New Paradise Theatre (photocopy of typescript)

CC-149.4A Print Volumes

Volume 1 The Natural Man (1st edition, 1st printing)

Volume 2 The Natural Man (page proof)

Volume 3 Mordsracker in Kentucky (German language edition)

Volume 4 The Natural Man (Japanese language edition)

Volume 5 The Natural Man (Penguin Books edition)

Volume 6 The Natural Man (British edition)

Volume 7 Famous People I Have Known (uncorrected page proof)

Volume 8 A Congress of Wonders (limited edition; cloth in slipcase)

Volume 9 A Congress of Wonders (uncorrected bound galleys)

Volume 10 Batholomew, W.B. Ed McClanahan: A Descriptive Bibliography, 1954-2000. Tucson, AZ: Sylph Publications, 1999 ("For this twenty-six copy limited cloth edition ... an orginal silkscreen print by Petro Graphics, Lexington, Kentucky, of the image of Captain Kentucky by Ed McClanahan, June 19999, has

CC-149.4B Periodical Articles

Volume 1 "Little Enis Pursues His Muse." Playboy (March 1974)

Volume 2 "Gurney at the Breach." Per/Se (Summer 1966)

Volume 3 "Ed McClanahan." Signature (1997)

Volume 4 Spindrift (Winter 1962)

Volume 5 "A Brief Exegesis of Certain Socio-Philosophical Themes in Robert Hunter's 'New Speedway Boogie!'." The Last Supplement to the Whole Earth Catalog (March 1971)

Volume 6 "Famous People I Have Known." Esquire (January 1971)

Volume 1 "First Editions: Young Writers." GQ (August 1983)

Volume 1 "Whatever Happened to Ed McClanahan." The Berkeley Monthly (January 1986)

CC-149.5A Identified Writings

Folder 1 Art!

Folder 2 Back to the Farm (typescript with revisions)

Folder 3 Blood of the Lamb (typescript)

Folder 4 Chicken Little (typescript with revisions)

Folder 5 Congress of Wonders (typescript with revisions)

Folder 6 Congress of Wonders (typescript)

Folder 7 Congress of Wonders (typescript with revisions)

Folder 8 Congress of Wonders (Esquire version; typescript with revisions)

Folder 9 Congress of Wonders ("perfect copy")

Folder 10 Congress of Wonders (screenplay)

Folder 11 Congress of Wonders (typescript)

Folder 12 Consider the Lilies, How They Grow (typescript with revisions)

Folder 13 Crazy Man Crazy (screenplay)

Folder 14 Daddies of the Nation (typescript)

Folder 14B Daddies of the Nation (typescript with revisions)

Folder 15 Dead (rough draft with notes)

Folder 16 Dead (typescript with revisions)

Folder 17 Dead (notebook)

Folder 18 Donald Harrington Can Write (holograph; title from first line)

Folder 19 Eli, Eli (typescript with revisions)

Folder 19B Empathy Follows Sympathy (typescript)

Folder 20 Finch Fronk

Folder 21 Finch Fronk

Folder 22 Finch Fronk: A Schoolbus Tragedy (typescript with revisions)

Folder 23 Found Art, vol. 1

Folder 24 Found Art, vol 2

Folder 25 Found Poetry (typescript with revisions)

Folder 26 Fred Nelson Obituary (typescript with revisions)

Folder 27 Free You originals (typescript)

Folder 28 From a Considerable Height (typescript)

Folder 29 Good News From the Land of the Honey and the Fritter Tree (typescript with revisions)

Folder 30 Gurney at the Breach (rough and final drafts)

Folder 31 Gurney at the Breach (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 32 Gurney at the Breach (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 32B Harry Eastep File (typescript)

Folder 33 I Am the Man (typescript)

Folder 33B How to Weave a Tangled Web (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 34 Jim McGee (typescript with revisions)

Folder 34B Little Enis (original rough draft; typescript with revisions)

Folder 35 Little-Known Bird of the Inner Eye (typescript with revisions)

Folder 36 Lucky Somonovitch (working draft material)

Folder 37 Lucky Somonovitch (typescript with revisions)

Folder 38 My Vita If You Will (typescript with revisions)

Folder 39 My Vita If You Will (typescript with revisions)

Folder 40 My Vita If You Will (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 41 1944: A War Story (original and drafts)

Folder 42 1944: A War Story (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 43 One Night Last Summer (typescript with revisions)

Folder 44 Postcard (typescript with revisions)

Folder 45 Ruby and the Man With Two Noses (typescript)

Folder 46 Shine, Perishing-Republic (holograph)

Folder 47 Stanford University papers, 1955-1956 (typescript with revisions)

Folder 48 Time Out of Mind (typescript)

Folder 49 Tired Man (typescript)

Folder 50 Unabated Dead (typescript with revisions)

Folder 51 University of Kentucky essays (holograph and typescript)

Folder 52 Water Tar (holograph)

Folder 53 Where I Live (typescript with revisions)

Folder 54 Where I Live ("church version"; typescript with revisions)

Folder 55 Where Is Miss Electra (typescript with revisions)

Folder 56 Where Lanky Lived (typescript with revisions)

Folder 57 World's Greatest Schoolbus Tragedy (typescript with revisions)

Folder 58 Miscellaneous early Miami University stories (typescript)

Folder 59 Television fragments from The Natural Man (holograph and typescript)

CC-149.5B Unidentified Writings

Folder 1 "Romeo Pasalaqua" (1st line; typescript with revisions); untitled moview script (holograph); correspondence with Paul Wagner

Folder 2 Untitled (typescript with revisions)

Folder 3 Untitled (typescript with revisions)

Folder 4 Untitled (typescript with revisions; holograph)

Folder 5 Untitled (typescript with revisions)

Folder 6 Untitled (typescript with revisions)

Folder 7 Untitled (typescript with revisions)

Folder 8 Empathy Follows Sympathy (typescript with revisions); Untitled (typescript with revisions)

Folder 9 Untitled (typescript with revisions); yellow legal pad (holograph)

Folder 10 Yonder River (1st line; holograph)

Folder 11 Unidentified (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 12 Yellow notebook (holograph)

CC-149.5C Reviews and Miscellaneous

Folder 1 Keynote speech at the University of Kentucky English Department honors and awards ceremony, April 19. 1989 (holograph)

Folder 2 Rolling Stone reviews (typescript with revisions)

Folder 3 Berry, Wendell. "Ed McClanahan of Brooksville: A Recognition" (photocopy of typescript)

Folder 4 Louisville Courier-Journal reviews (typescript)

Folder 5 Reviews (typescript)

Folder 6 Introduction to Guy Mendes' Light at Hand (typescript with revisions)

Folder 7 Miscellaneous and "The Clock Tower"

Folder 8 Miscellaneous (typescript with revisions)

Folder 9 Miscellaneous correspondence

Folder 10 Miscellaneous correspondence

CC-149.6 Ed McClanahan Papers

Folder 1 Photocopy of letter from Wendell Berry to Norman Gurney, dated September 22, 1969; letter from Wendell Berry, dated June 9, 1971; letter from Wendell Berry, dated June 25, 1971; letter from Wendell Berry, dated May 4, 1996; letter from Wendell Berry, dated April 18, 1970; poem "Kentucky River Junction (to Ken Kesey & Ken Babbs)"; letter from James D. Birchfield, dated August 17, 2001, with inventory of items donated by McClanahan to U.K. Libraries.

CC-149.7 Miscellaneous

Box 1 Unsorted miscellaneous

Box 2 Unsorted miscellaneous