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.

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.