The mention of Dave Barry reminded me of my favorite wildlife author. (wildlife or wild life)
I have had the opportunity to read all of Patrick McManus’s books and stories about fishing and wildlife, I have seen two of his plays and I must know. Has anyone gotten to know this guy and is he anything like he portrays himself in the books? Just wondering. 
NF,
Personally, I find his writing difficult to read. The tears of laughter always blur the words on the page. I’ve read much of his work and always come away with a much better feeling. For a while at least he was a professor at Eastern Washington University in Cheney. I believe he is now retired from teaching, and unless I miss my guess, has moved back to the Sandpoint/Pack River area of North Idaho. And, I’m sorry to say I’ve never met him.
…and I found myself in so many, fall in the stream with the camera in my hand, fish between my legs, net caught on a branch as I wandered through the woods, that I “stole” his name for the bulletin board.
I love his books!
Perhaps my one claim to fame is that I am McManus’ last student. He was my major professor is grad school, and I had to drag him out of retirement to sit on my thesis board.
I think I had something like 15 classes with him, fished with him, hunted with him and tipped a few with him.
He is quiet and unassuming until you get to know him and the stories begin to roll. The stories he tells that aren’t for publication are better in a lot of ways than the ones he writes…
He is responsible for me pursuing a career in writing, and he has helped a number of beginning writers to become successful–Paul Quinnet (sp?) and Alan Liere to name two, both of whom were classmates.
As for the stories he writes…many of those come from real life. Some of them are toned-down because what happened was so unbelievable that no one would believe they could ever happen. I’ve been on a few of his adventures, and I still wonder how any of us survived…
Pat is a great writer and a good man.
Keith
Keith, how very nice of you. Things I for sure didn’t know. It all helps me to love the guy. 
Awsome!!! Thank you so much, I am glad you replied. :mrgreen: I would love to read about the ones that are unbelieveable.
I think that I have all of Patrick McManus books. Even got a few signed at one of his plays at Gillette, WY about 10 year ago. I would say the best play I have ever seen.
My son is now a Debate student in high school. From what I understand they have a comic session or something like that the students can do as part of the contest. I have been after him now for over a year, to do one of Patrick McManus short stories in one of the contests. Last night I even gave in one of the books to read, but so far he has taken the bait.
He isn’t as much into fishing or hunting as I am. Some of that is my fault as he has been the only sane person in a few of my escapades. Like when he was about 6 and hunting deer in the middle of a snow storm. He kept telling me dad we better start heading back and I kept saying oh we can go a little further. Darn it was one heck of a walk back up hill in that snow storm. :roll:
Keith, I’m glad to see you post that. I have had the priviledge of meeting him and he seemed like the nicest of guys. My brother and I used to give each other signed copies of his books at every opportunity. I remember one little talk he did before a book-signing. He was down here (Nashville, TN.) and gave a talk about the dangers of freezing and hypothermia. He commented that every year people are found close to their cars but they didn’t quite make it. At the end of his speech, he realized that a lot of us were grinning. He then footnoted his speech by acknowledging that the winter night outside, locally, was shirtsleeve weather and that we might not see sub-freezing temperatures as much as Idaho.
warm regards,
Ed
Some years ago while we were building our house and living in a small travel trailer, I’d read a McManus story to my wife after we went to bed. She used to shake the trailer from her laughing hard enough to wake the kid sleeping up front. :lol:
Great stories- I’d love to meet the man. One section of our book cases is devoted to Mc Manus books.
He was a riot…
How about Ed Zern???
He is/was one of the best!!!