Kentucky author and ‘Merry Prankster’ Ed McClanahan dies

The original 1939 International bus dubbed Further and ridden on a cross-country trip in 1964 by author Ken Kesey and his friends, the Merry Pranksters, right, sits in a barn in Pleasant Hill, Ore., on May 14, 2014. Next to it, left, is a newer version of the bus that Kesey’s son, Zane, plans to put back on the road for a 50th anniversary commemoration of the trip that became an icon of the psychedelic 1960s. (AP Photo/Jeff Barnard)

by: Dustin Massengill

Posted: Dec 1, 2021 / 04:25 PM EST

Updated: Dec 1, 2021 / 04:25 PM EST

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky author Ed McClanahan has died at his home at the age of 89. McClanahan was a friend of counterculture icon Ken Kesey, who wrote “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

McClanahan was born in Brooksville in Bracken County.

In 1962, he was at Stanford University when he met Kesey, and Kesey’s band of Merry Pranksters. McClanahan was known as “Captain Kentucky,” and wore costumes while traveling with the LSD-fueled group.

The communal travelers’ exploits were chronicled in Tom Wolfe’s 1968 book “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.” McClanahan was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2019.

He died Saturday at his Lexington home.