Famous People I Have Known

By Ed McClanahan

Book Overview

Drivers exiting the New Jersey Turnpike for Perth Amboy, and map readers marveling at all the places in Pennsylvania named Lackawanna, need no longer wonder how these names originated. Manhattan to Minisink provides the histories of more than five hundred place names in the Greater New York area, including the five boroughs, western Long Island, the New York counties north of the city, and parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Robert S. Grumet, a leading ethnohistorian specializing in the region's Indian peoples, draws on his meticulous research and deep knowledge to determine the origins of Native, and Native-sounding, place names. Grumet divides his encyclopedic entries into two parts. The first comprises an alphabetical listing of nearly 340 Indian place names preserved in colonial records, located by county and state. Each entry includes the name's language of origin, if known, and a brief discussion of its etymology, including its earliest known occurrence in written records, the history of its appearance on maps, and the name's current status. The book's second section presents nearly 200 place names that, though widely believed to be of Indian origin, are "imports, inventions, invocations, or impostors." Mistranslations are abundant in place names, and Grumet has ferreted out the mistakes and deceptions among home-grown colonial etymologies that New Yorkers have accepted for centuries. Complete with a concise history of Greater New York, a discussion of the region's naming practices, a useful timeline, and four maps, this is an invaluable resource both for scholars and for readers who want a more intimate knowledge of the place where they live or visit.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081319069X
• ISBN13: 9780813190693
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.6"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Blast From The Past

An overage hippie I met in Frankfort, Kentucky recommended this book to me at the infamous Downtown Bar and Grill - no grill, just bar. I will be in Frankfort next month and I will thank the gentleman for recommending this book. It takes me back to my youth, after my return from Vietnam and fleeting involvement with the Left while an undergraduate. The girls were easier and a little hairier than mainstream chicks. McClanahan hits the Redneck and Leftist cultures right on their noggins - a wonderful and funny read. The essay on the Panther gathering is great.

"Famous People" made me laugh and made me cry. . .

If you ever feel nostalgic for the '60s - or any other good times and special friendships in your life - read this book. McClanahan is funny as can be, generous, and sentimental. You can only love it!