Works
McManus writes mostly about his outdoor adventures from his childhood with semi-fictional characters such as his old woodsman mentor Rancid Crabtree and his childhood friends. The stories' humor is mostly based on elaborate exaggerations of his surreal adventures into the outdoors. McManus's writing is characterized by a dry wit that has drawn comparisons to Mark Twain and Robert Benchley.
As of 2010, his most recent work is The Huckleberry Murders, the fourth in a series of mystery novels starring the character Sheriff Bo Tully. Other departures from his column-collections include Kid Camping From Aaaaiii! To Zip (1979, an alphabetized, and partially serious, listing of useful tips and concepts for beginning campers); Whatchagot Stew (1989, both a cookbook and a less-fictionalized memoir of his childhood); and The Deer On A Bicycle (2000, a discussion of the art of humor writing.)
Some of his stories have been adapted as stage-plays; Tim Behrens adapted his work into the stage play A Fine and Pleasant Misery: The Humor of Patrick F. McManus in 1996.
In October 2011, an index of his stories and novels titled "Where's the One About the Bobcat?" was compiled by Lauren Ball, making it easy for readers to find their favorite stories.
Read more about this topic: Patrick F. McManus
Famous quotes containing the word works:
“The works of women are symbolical.
We sew, sew, prick our fingers, dull our sight,
Producing what? A pair of slippers, sir,
To put on when you’re weary or a stool
To stumble over and vex you ... “curse that stool!”
Or else at best, a cushion, where you lean
And sleep, and dream of something we are not,
But would be for your sake. Alas, alas!
This hurts most, this ... that, after all, we are paid
The worth of our work, perhaps.”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
“I lay my eternal curse on whomsoever shall now or at any time hereafter make schoolbooks of my works and make me hated as Shakespeare is hated. My plays were not designed as instruments of torture. All the schools that lust after them get this answer, and will never get any other.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Nature is so perfect that the Trinity couldn’t have fashioned her any more perfect. She is an organ on which our Lord plays and the devil works the bellows.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)