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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.

Collection Inventory
 
CC-149.1 The Natural Man
 
Folder 1Art (typescript with revisions; photocopy of typescript)
Folder 2Art (photocopy of typescript with minor revisions)
Folder 3Art (typescript with revisions; 3 sheet holograph)
Folder 4C+ (typescript with revisions)
Folder 5C+ (typescript with revisions)
Folder 6C+ (photocopy of typescript with revisions)
Folder 7C+ (photocopy of typescript with revisions)
Folder 8Consider the Lilies, How they Grow (typescript with revisions)
Folder 9Consider the Lilies, How they Grow. Section III (first draft manuscript)
Folder 10Consider the Lilies, How they Grow (original manuscript)
Folder 11Consider the Lilies, How they Grow (manuscript)
Folder 12Consider the Lilies, How they Grow (projected Boone opening)
Folder 13From a Considerable Height (original manuscript)
Folder 14From a Considerable Height (typescript)
Folder 15From a Considerable Height (original 1st draft)
Folder 16From a Considerable Height (typescript)
Folder 17From a Considerable Height (typescript with revisions)
Folder 18From a Considerable Height (typescript with revisions)
Folder 19From a Considerable Height (typescript with revisions)
Folder 20My Job at the New Artistic Motion Picture Theatre (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 21Natural Man (typescript "old draft typed")
Folder 22Natural Man (original)
Folder 23Natural Man (original)
Folder 24Natural Man (original)
Folder 25Natural Man (original)
Folder 26Natural Man (master galley)
Folder 27Natural Man (master galley)
Folder 28Natural Man (master galley)
Folder 29Natural Man (edited copy)
Folder 30The Greatest Writing Ever Wrote (photocopy of typescript with revisions)
Folder 31The 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 33Offical documents and legal papers
Folder 34Miscellaneous
 
CC-149.2 A Hell of a Note
 
Folder 1Manila 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 2Untitled (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 3A Hell of a Note (photocopy of typescript with minor revisions)
Folder 4A Hell of a Note (photocopy of typescript with revisions)
Folder 5A Hell of a Note (typescript with minor revisions)
Folder 6A Hell of a Note (typescript with minor revisions)
Folder 7A Hell of a Note (photocopy of typescript with minor revisions)
Folder 8Spiral bound notebook
Folder 9C+ (photocopy of typescript in folder labeled "C+ - original rough cum detritis")
Folder 10A 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 11A 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 1Miscellaneous; labeled by author "Book stuff"; letters to and from agents (includes typescript with revisions of Famous People I Have Known)
Folder 2Little Enis Pursues His Muse (photocopy of typescript submitted to Playboy); letter to Robert Crumb dated March 27, 1985
Folder 3Toadvine Regained (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 4Country music - miscellaneous
Folder 5The Day the Lampshades Breathed (photocopy of typescript - 2 copies)
Folder 6Drowning in the Land of Sky-Blue Waters (typescript with minor revisions)
Folder 7Drowning in the Land of Sky-Blue Waters (typescript with revisions)
Folder 8Elbow Room (typescript with revisions - 2 copies)
Folder 9Yellow legal pad (holograph; 1st line "So we drag ass into Lafayette about 2 in the afternoon")
Folder 10Famous People I Have Known (labeled "Rough draft of version that appeared in Esquire, 1969")
Folder 11Famous People I Have Known (typescript chapters with revisions)
Folder 12Famous People I Have Known (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 13Famous People I Have Known (galley proof)
Folder 14Famous People I Have Known (1972 version with Wendell Berry introduction - complete draft)
Folder 15Famous People I Have Known (1985 original final draft)
Folder 16Famous People I Have Known (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 17Famous People I Have Known (Master set)
Folder 18Famous People I Have Known (Afterward)
Folder 19Famous People I Have Known (Master galleys)
Folder 20Grateful Dead I Have Known (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 21Highway 52 Revisited (typescript with revisions; photocopy of typesript - 4 copies)
Folder 21BHighway 52 Revisited (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 22Ken Kesey, Jean Genet, the Revolution, Et Moi (typescript with revisions); Genet (photocopy of typescript with revisions); People (June 24, 1985)
Folder 23Ken Kesey, Jean Genet, the Revolution, Et Moi (typesceipt with revisions)
Folder 24Miscellaneous (typescript and photocopy of typescript, some with revisions)
Folder 25Saturday Night; Honkytonking in Hard Times (outline - 2 copies); Let Us Begin; Bon Ton Roulet (2 copies)
Folder 26Saturday Night (typescript with revisions - 2 copies); Miscellaneous letters; Country Star News (April 1976)
Folder 27Famous People I have Known - miscellaneous chapters (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 28How to Weave a Tangled Web (typescript)
Folder 29How to Weave a Tangled Web (typescript with revisions)
Folder 30Why I Live Where I Live (typescript with revisions)
Folder 31Excerpts from Famous People I Have Known
Folder 32Famous People I Have Known - flap copy (photocopy of typescripts with revisions)
Folder 33Untitled (1st line - "We picked up on zydeco music for the first time in Austin"; typescript with revisions with holograph)
Folder 34Miscellaneous (holograph on yellow legal tablet)
Folder 35Famous People I Have Known (photocopy of typescript); My Job at the New Paradise Theatre (photocopy of typescript)
 
CC-149.4A Print Volumes
 
Volume 1The Natural Man (1st edition, 1st printing)
Volume 2The Natural Man (page proof)
Volume 3Mordsracker in Kentucky (German language edition)
Volume 4The Natural Man (Japanese language edition)
Volume 5The Natural Man (Penguin Books edition)
Volume 6The Natural Man (British edition)
Volume 7Famous People I Have Known (uncorrected page proof)
Volume 8A Congress of Wonders (limited edition; cloth in slipcase)
Volume 9A Congress of Wonders (uncorrected bound galleys)
Volume 10Batholomew, 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 4Spindrift (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 1Art!
Folder 2Back to the Farm (typescript with revisions)
Folder 3Blood of the Lamb (typescript)
Folder 4Chicken Little (typescript with revisions)
Folder 5Congress of Wonders (typescript with revisions)
Folder 6Congress of Wonders (typescript)
Folder 7Congress of Wonders (typescript with revisions)
Folder 8Congress of Wonders (Esquire version; typescript with revisions)
Folder 9Congress of Wonders ("perfect copy")
Folder 10Congress of Wonders (screenplay)
Folder 11Congress of Wonders (typescript)
Folder 12Consider the Lilies, How They Grow (typescript with revisions)
Folder 13Crazy Man Crazy (screenplay)
Folder 14Daddies of the Nation (typescript)
Folder 14BDaddies of the Nation (typescript with revisions)
Folder 15Dead (rough draft with notes)
Folder 16Dead (typescript with revisions)
Folder 17Dead (notebook)
Folder 18Donald Harrington Can Write (holograph; title from first line)
Folder 19Eli, Eli (typescript with revisions)
Folder 19BEmpathy Follows Sympathy (typescript)
Folder 20Finch Fronk
Folder 21Finch Fronk
Folder 22Finch Fronk: A Schoolbus Tragedy (typescript with revisions)
Folder 23Found Art, vol. 1
Folder 24Found Art, vol 2
Folder 25Found Poetry (typescript with revisions)
Folder 26Fred Nelson Obituary (typescript with revisions)
Folder 27Free You originals (typescript)
Folder 28From a Considerable Height (typescript)
Folder 29Good News From the Land of the Honey and the Fritter Tree (typescript with revisions)
Folder 30Gurney at the Breach (rough and final drafts)
Folder 31Gurney at the Breach (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 32Gurney at the Breach (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 32BHarry Eastep File (typescript)
Folder 33I Am the Man (typescript)
Folder 33BHow to Weave a Tangled Web (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 34Jim McGee (typescript with revisions)
Folder 34BLittle Enis (original rough draft; typescript with revisions)
Folder 35Little-Known Bird of the Inner Eye (typescript with revisions)
Folder 36Lucky Somonovitch (working draft material)
Folder 37Lucky Somonovitch (typescript with revisions)
Folder 38My Vita If You Will (typescript with revisions)
Folder 39My Vita If You Will (typescript with revisions)
Folder 40My Vita If You Will (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 411944: A War Story (original and drafts)
Folder 421944: A War Story (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 43One Night Last Summer (typescript with revisions)
Folder 44Postcard (typescript with revisions)
Folder 45Ruby and the Man With Two Noses (typescript)
Folder 46Shine, Perishing-Republic (holograph)
Folder 47Stanford University papers, 1955-1956 (typescript with revisions)
Folder 48Time Out of Mind (typescript)
Folder 49Tired Man (typescript)
Folder 50Unabated Dead (typescript with revisions)
Folder 51University of Kentucky essays (holograph and typescript)
Folder 52Water Tar (holograph)
Folder 53Where I Live (typescript with revisions)
Folder 54Where I Live ("church version"; typescript with revisions)
Folder 55Where Is Miss Electra (typescript with revisions)
Folder 56Where Lanky Lived (typescript with revisions)
Folder 57World's Greatest Schoolbus Tragedy (typescript with revisions)
Folder 58Miscellaneous early Miami University stories (typescript)
Folder 59Television 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 2Untitled (typescript with revisions)
Folder 3Untitled (typescript with revisions)
Folder 4Untitled (typescript with revisions; holograph)
Folder 5Untitled (typescript with revisions)
Folder 6Untitled (typescript with revisions)
Folder 7Untitled (typescript with revisions)
Folder 8Empathy Follows Sympathy (typescript with revisions); Untitled (typescript with revisions)
Folder 9Untitled (typescript with revisions); yellow legal pad (holograph)
Folder 10Yonder River (1st line; holograph)
Folder 11Unidentified (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 12Yellow notebook (holograph)
 
CC-149.5C Reviews and Miscellaneous
 
Folder 1Keynote speech at the University of Kentucky English Department honors and awards ceremony, April 19. 1989 (holograph)
Folder 2Rolling Stone reviews (typescript with revisions)
Folder 3Berry, Wendell. "Ed McClanahan of Brooksville: A Recognition" (photocopy of typescript)
Folder 4Louisville Courier-Journal reviews (typescript)
Folder 5Reviews (typescript)
Folder 6Introduction to Guy Mendes' Light at Hand (typescript with revisions)
Folder 7Miscellaneous and "The Clock Tower"
Folder 8Miscellaneous (typescript with revisions)
Folder 9Miscellaneous correspondence
Folder 10Miscellaneous correspondence
 
CC-149.6 Ed McClanahan Papers
 
Folder 1Photocopy 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 1Unsorted miscellaneous
Box 2Unsorted miscellaneous