October 7, 2008
For Immediate Release
For an Interview:
Lee Ann Mortenson
(801) 863-8785
Utah Valley University has invited award-winning author and "Merry Prankster" Ed McClanahan will read from his new autobiography Oct. 14 at 1 p.m. in the UVU Sorensen Student Center (SC) 213 B.
McClanahan is the author of several books, including the novels ‘The Natural Man,’ which The New York Times Book Review predicted "will eventually find its place among great coming-of-age books like ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ and ‘Catcher in the Rye,’" and ‘Famous People I Have Known,’ which Wendell Berry, a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems and essays hailed as "peerless."
McClanahan’s place in literary history has been described by several sources as an uncommon link between the 1960s California counterculture experience and a rural American lifestyle. He compares his experience growing up in Kentucky to the hippie movements that rejected the culture of Middle America in the 1960s and ‘70s, revealing a unique and humorous blend of insights.
One major contribution to McClanahan’s writing was his participation with the Merry Pranksters, a group formed around American author Ken Kesey that constructed a social, intellectual and artistic movement in the 1960s. The Merry Pranksters were famous for their Magic Bus Trip from California to New York in 1964 as well as their experimentation with acid (LSD) and other psychedelic drugs.
"He is part of a small group of writers whose works spanned both the end of the Beat movement and the birth of the new American counterculture," said Ken Sanders, owner of Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City. "McClanahan’s latest book ‘O the Clear Moment’ contains stories that are quirky, lyrical and hilarious, all told in the inimitable voice of one of this generation’s best Southern chroniclers of American life."
The work of McClanahan has appeared in magazines such as Esquire, Rolling Stone and Playboy. He was awarded Playboy’s Best Nonfiction award twice, in addition to a Wallace Stenger Fellowship, two Yaddo Fellowships and an Al Smith Fellowship. His diverse experiences as a student, professor and writer range not only from the 1950s to the present, but also traverse the United States.
McClanahan was brought to the University through UVU's Guest Author Reading Series, the Happenings in Humanities program, UVU College of Humanities and Social Sciences, UVU English and Literature Department and Ken Sanders Rare Books.
All guest readings are free and open to the public. ‘O the Clear Moment’ is currently being sold at the UVU bookstore.
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College Marketing Contact:
Erin Spurgeon
(801) 863-6807
Written by:
Hanna Hopkinson
(801) 863-7205