Day 31: Ed McClanahan

A nationally well known author was from Bracken/Mason Counties.

According to local historian Ron Bailey, Ed McClanahan was born in Brooksville on Oct. 5, 1932 to Edward Leroy and Jessie (Poage) McClanahan.

The family later relocated to Maysville and in 1951, McClanahan graduated from Maysville High School.

After high school, McClanahan graduated from college and began teaching at several different universities.

While in high school, he was a soda jerk at Kilgus’s Drugstore. From there, he received an undergraduate degree from Miami University in Ohio and a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky in 1958, according to Bailey.

He began his teaching career at Stanford University, then the University of Montana (1973–1976), the University of Kentucky and Northern Kentucky University.

“If you have ever read any of Ed’s work, you know how he turned a small Kentucky childhood, and later his time spent in California, into his writings,” Bailey said. “He was known as one of Kentucky’s Fav Five of writers along with Wendell Berry, James Baker Hall, Bobbie Ann Mason and Gurney Norman. Mr. McClanahan was inducted into Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2019.”

According to Bailey, McClanahan became an award winning writer through short stories, essays and reviews.

Some of his work included Esquire, Playboy and Rolling Stone magazines.

In 1983, he published “The Natural Man”.

“His 1983 novel, which he started writing in 1961 and finished decades later, The Natural Man is a must read as it is a classic as his early days in Bracken County inspired this great novel. Whether if any of his fiction or non-fiction writings he often drew from his own experience growing up in Kentucky,” Bailey said. “In his novel from 1985, “Famous People I have Known”, it is so interesting as he shares his brush with famous people. Like when he taught English in Oregon, the Original Gidget was in his class. He ordained Paul Newman into the ministry of the Universal Life Church. If you have never read any of his work, take time to cherish an outstanding and award-winning author and one of our area’s finest.”

McClanahan passed away in 2021.