Illinois Authors

The Illinois Center for the Book banner

Edward McClelland

Born: 1967 in Lansing, Michigan
Pen Name: Ted McClelland

Connection to Illinois: McClelland lives in Chicago.

Biography: Edward McClelland was born in Lansing, Mich., and attended both the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. Like so many Michiganders of his generation, he now lives in Chicago, Illinois. Most recently, he is the author of 'How to Speak Midwestern,' which The New York Times called 'a dictionary wrapped in some serious dialectology inside a gift book.' His book, 'Nothin' But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland,' was inspired by seeing the Fisher Body plant across the street from his old high school torn down. After getting his start in journalism at the Lansing State Journal, he later worked as a staff writer for the Chicago Reader. His book 'The Third Coast: Sailors, Strippers, Fishermen, Folksingers, Long-Haired Ojibway Painters and God-Save-the-Queen Monarchists of the Great Lakes' won the 2008 Great Lakes Book Award in General Nonfiction. Ted's writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Columbia Journalism Review, Salon, Slate, and The Guardian.


Awards:
  • ''The Third Coast ''
  • -- Great Lakes Book Award for General Nonfiction, 2008

Primary Literary Genre(s): Non-Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Website: http://edwardmcclelland.com


Selected Titles

Folktales and legends of the Middle West /
ISBN: 0998018813 OCLC: 1005202335

Readers will learn the sea shanties of the Great Lakes sailors and the spirituals of the slaves following the North Star across the Ohio River, and be frightened by tales of the Lake Erie Monster and Wisconsin's dangerous Hodag. A history of the region as told through its folklore, music, and legends.

How to Speak Midwestern
ISBN: 0997774274 OCLC: 959032362

Belt Publishing 2016

Pittsburgh toilet, squeaky cheese, city chicken, shampoo banana, and Chevy in the Hole are all phrases that are familiar to Midwesterners but sound foreign to anyone living outside the region. This book explains not only what Midwesterners say but also how and why they say it and covers such topics as: the causes of the Northern cities vowel shift, why the accents in 'Fargo' miss the nasality that's a hallmark of Minnesota speech, and why Chicagoans talk more like people from Buffalo than their next-door neighbors in Wisconsin. Readers from the Midwest will have a better understanding of why they talk the way they do, and readers who are not from the Midwest will know exactly what to say the next time someone ends a sentence with "eh?"

Midnight in Vehicle City: General Motors, Flint, and the Strike That Created the Middle Class
ISBN: 0807039675 OCLC: 1156428972

Beacon Press 2021

"The story of the forty-four-day Flint Sit Down Strike of 1936-37, which led to the recognition of the United Auto Workers, the union whose wages and benefits set the standard for the 20th Century American middle class"--

Nothin' But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times, and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland
ISBN: 1608195295 OCLC: 795174973

Bloomsbury, 2014.

"The Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region became the "arsenal of democracy"--The greatest manufacturing center in the world-in the years during and after World War II, thanks to natural advantages and a welcoming culture. Decades of unprecedented prosperity followed, memorably punctuated by riots, strikes, burning rivers, and oil embargoes. A vibrant, quintessentially American character bloomed in the region's cities, suburbs, and backwaters. But the innovation and industry that defined the Rust Belt also helped to hasten its demise. An air conditioner invented in Upstate New York transformed the South from a sweaty backwoods to a non-unionized industrial competitor. Japan and Germany recovered from their defeat to build fuel-efficient cars in the stagnant 1970s. The tentpole factories that paid workers so well also filled the air with soot, and poisoned waters and soil. The jobs drifted elsewhere, and many of the people soon followed suit. Nothin' but Blue Skies tells the story of how the country's industrial heartland grew, boomed, bottomed, and hopes to be reborn. Through a propulsive blend of storytelling and reportage, celebrated writer Edward McClelland delivers the rise, fall, and revival of the Rust Belt and its people."--Publisher's website.

RUNNING FOR HOME.
ISBN: 1947504266 OCLC: 1247678159

The Third Coast: Sailors, Strippers, Fishermen, Folksingers, Long-Haired Ojibway Painters, and God-Save-the-Queen Monarchists of the Great Lakes
ISBN: 1556527217 OCLC: 750236191

Chicago Review Press 2008

Chronicling the author's 10,000-mile "Great Lakes Circle Tour," this travel memoir seeks to answer a burning question: Is there a Great Lakes culture, and if so, what is it? Largely associated with the Midwest, the Great Lakes region actually has a culture that transcends the border between the United States and Canada. United by a love of encased meats, hockey, beer, snowmobiling, deer hunting, and classic-rock power ballads, the folks in Detroit have more in common with citizens in Windsor, Ontario, than those in Wichita, Kansas-while Toronto residents have more in common with Chicagoans tha

Young Mr. Obama :
ISBN: 1608190609 OCLC: 555656497

Bloomsbury Press, 2010.

The author details the start of Barack Obama's career in Chicago through his eventual victory for Senator, exploring the city's south side history, the key players in Obama's path to the U.S. Senate, and Chicago's political style.

 

 

Accessibility