Patrick F. McManus
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40 free Patrick F. McManus trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Rancid Crabtree may be the best-loved unwashed man in American humor. He is the old woodsman who looms over the boyhood stories of Patrick F. McManus, the outdoor columnist whose collections of hunting, fishing and camping disasters sold in the millions and reached the New York Times bestseller list. This quiz covers the whole McManus world: Rancid and the other regulars of the stories, the books with the unforgettable titles, the Bo Tully mystery novels, the one-man stage comedies, and the Idaho childhood that supplied the raw material. It is written for readers who grew up on the magazine columns and for anyone who has just discovered the books. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so even a wrong guess leaves you with a good story.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Why does Rancid Crabtree, the old woodsman of Patrick F. McManus's stories, refuse to bathe?
It would let germs in
It would let germs in, Rancid reasons: soap and water would wash off his protective 'crust'. He is the foremost character in McManus's tales of an Idaho boyhood.
Q 02What nickname does Patrick F. McManus give his older sister Patricia in his childhood stories?
The Troll
The Troll was his name for big sister Patricia, who helped raise him after their dad died when he was six. Decades later the two wrote a book together.
Q 03Patrick F. McManus's 'They Shoot Canoes, Don't They?' spoofs a 1935 novel title naming what animals?
Horses
Horses were the original targets in Horace McCoy's grim dance-marathon novel. McManus borrowed the title for his second collection of magazine pieces.
Q 04According to Patrick F. McManus's first book, what should a person lost in the woods give way to?
Panic
Panic, he insists, is the proper response, and he sorts it into styles such as the Modified Stationary Panic and the Full-Bore Linear Panic.
Q 05Which animal does Patrick F. McManus call the fisherman's arch-nemesis, worse than barbed wire?
The cow
The cow is the fisherman's arch-nemesis in A Fine and Pleasant Misery, his first book. His later camping guide for children even covers what to do if you meet one.
Q 06Patrick F. McManus's anthology 'I Fish; Therefore, I Am' riffs on the dictum of which philosopher?
René Descartes
René Descartes wrote 'I think, therefore I am', and McManus swapped in his favorite pastime. The anthology gathers his first three story collections in one volume.
Q 07Whose old-man-and-fish tale does Patrick F. McManus spoof in 'The Good Samaritan Strikes Again'?
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway gets the treatment in a spoof whose narrator and a 92-year-old angler go fourteen days without a big catch. The collection was McManus's eighth.
Q 08What job does Bo Tully hold in Blight County, Idaho, in Patrick F. McManus's mystery novels?
Sheriff
Sheriff Bo Tully keeps order in Blight County across six comic mysteries. McManus began the series in his seventies, fulfilling a long-held ambition to write crime novels.
Q 09What mock title did Tim Behrens go by as the performer of Patrick F. McManus's one-man stage comedies?
Indentured actor
Indentured actor was the running joke: Behrens had been McManus's writing student, and went on to give about 1,600 performances of the plays.
Q 10What kind of book is 'Whatchagot Stew', which Patrick F. McManus wrote with his sister Patricia?
A cookbook
A cookbook with a memoir stirred in: Patricia supplied the old family recipes and Pat wrote the essays, joking that the butter-laden dishes were deadly.
Q 11What part does woodsman Rancid Crabtree play in young Pat's life in Patrick F. McManus's stories?
Mentor
Mentor is how McManus cast him: a loner in the woods who cares only for hunting and fishing, with nobody telling him to go to school.
Q 12Which animals does Rancid Crabtree take up trapping in one bestselling Patrick F. McManus collection?
Skunks
Skunks suit a man who never washes, and the new trade leaves Rancid flushed with the smell of success. The collection became a New York Times bestseller.
Q 13In the play 'McManus in Love', the famously unwashed Rancid Crabtree gives young Pat tips on what?
Personal grooming
Personal grooming advice from a man who never bathes is the joke, as Pat and his sidekick Crazy Eddie brace for the terrors of a first date.
Q 21Patrick F. McManus grew up on a farm outside which Idaho town, about 75 miles northeast of Spokane?
Sandpoint
Sandpoint was home, and it never left his work: the Blight of his mystery novels is a thinly veiled version of the town.
Q 22After Patrick F. McManus's father died when he was six, how did his mother earn the family's living?
Schoolteacher
Schoolteacher was her trade, often in one-room country schools. Her long days at work left young Pat free to roam the creek and woods that fill his stories.
Q 23What career did Patrick F. McManus plan on from boyhood until his first year at university?
An artist
An artist was the plan: he drew and painted all through school and started college as an art major. He later said the habit taught him to paint with words.
Q 14According to a lifelong friend of Patrick F. McManus, what was the woodsman Rancid Crabtree based on?
A real local man
A real local man, found in the hills near home when McManus was a boy, inspired Rancid. McManus refused to reveal the man's identity, even to his daughters.
Q 15What name did Patrick F. McManus give the rough-and-tumble family mutt of his childhood stories?
Strange
Strange was the dog's name, and by McManus's account he earned it: his idea of fine dining was roadkill aged in a ditch.
Q 16Which sound completes the title of Patrick F. McManus's bestselling collection 'Real Ponies Don't Go …'?
Oink
Oink finishes the title of the 1991 New York Times bestseller. In McManus's tales of a hard-up boyhood, young Pat's 'pony' was really a pig named Trigger.
Q 17In Patrick F. McManus's bestseller 'The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw', who or what is Goombaw?
A friend's grandmother
A friend's grandmother, in fact: Goombaw is grandma to Pat's pal Crazy Eddie Muldoon. The 1989 collection was a New York Times bestseller.
Q 18Which dim-witted Patrick F. McManus sidekick has a dog named Smarts that loses to a garage door?
Retch Sweeney
Retch Sweeney is the goofy pal of Pat's boyhood and grown-up misadventures alike. His siblings, just as unluckily named, are Erful and Verman.
Q 19By what nickname does Darlene, the wife of Patrick F. McManus, appear in his stories?
Bun
Bun is how Darlene McManus shows up on the page. Off it, she ran the family's business affairs for more than 57 years and archived her husband's writing.
Q 20The performer of Patrick F. McManus's plays ranked him alongside which 19th-century American humorist?
Mark Twain
Mark Twain was the yardstick, and a fellow professor went further, calling McManus the Twain of the Northwest. Reviewers reached for the same comparison for decades.
Q 24How did Patrick F. McManus earn the money for his first year of college after high school in Idaho?
Construction work
Construction work paid his way: he spent summers on dam-building crews, at one point dangling from ropes to clear loose rock off cliffs.
Q 25In which Washington college town did Patrick F. McManus earn his degree, after nearly flunking out?
Pullman
Pullman is home to Washington State, where a run of failed freshman essays turned into a fascination with writing. He went back there for a master's degree.
Q 26What newspaper job did Patrick F. McManus hold briefly after college, before turning to teaching?
Police reporter
Police reporter was his first beat, at a daily in Washington's capital. Years later he would startle sleepy journalism students by arriving in character as a detective sergeant.
Q 27At which university near Spokane did Patrick F. McManus teach English and journalism for two decades?
Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington gave him its Distinguished Faculty Award in 2013, three decades after he left the classroom to write full time.
Q 28Which magazine launched Patrick F. McManus's humor career by buying his spoof on wildlife tracking?
Field & Stream
Field & Stream paid $300 for a nonsense piece he dashed off in the last hour of a nightly writing session. He decided on the spot to become a humorist.
Q 29What was the name of the monthly humor column Patrick F. McManus wrote for Outdoor Life magazine?
Last Laugh
Last Laugh ran in Outdoor Life until 2009, with McManus also serving as the magazine's editor-at-large. He had moved there when a friend became its editor.
Q 30Patrick F. McManus arranged for proceeds of 'The Deer on a Bicycle', his guide for writers, to fund what?
Student scholarships
Student scholarships shared the money with the university press that published the book, which sold thousands of copies. The guide explains how comic stories are built.