Are there any Ed McClanahan fans here at LitNet? McClanahan wrote a novella called "The Natural Man", as well as several collections of stories and non-fiction,the best of which is "Famous People I Have Known". He was friends with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. After growing up in a small town in Kentucky, he studied (and taught) "Creative Writing" at a number of Universities, many of which were, by his account, eager to see the back of him. Because he writes about learning and teaching the craft of writing, some people here might particularly enjoy his work (as long as they don't take themselves too seriously).

McClanahan's style is a humorous blend of literate hipster and semi-literate hillbilly. I tried to get "Famous People I have Known" out of the library today, but it has disappeared since I last read it. I'll probably have to buy it online somewhere. The story about the musician "Little Ennis" is brilliant.

In one story in "Famous People", McClanahan describes going into a tavern, and sitting next to a scrawny, backwoods hippie. (From memory): "How's it going," said McClanahan.

"Pretty good," replied the man,running his fingers through his long, greasy hair. "Just got out of prison today."

Of course McClanahan, like anyone else, wanted to ask, "What were you in for?" But he thought that might be impolite. So to make conversation, he asked, "What do you intend to do now?"

"Nothin'."

"Nothing? Can't you find something to do?"

"Well, I could. But they won't let me do what I want to do."

"What's that?"

"Sell pot and crank to high school kids."

(McClanahan told it better.)