McCants, Clyde T. 1933-

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McCANTS, Clyde T. 1933-

(Clyde Taft McCants)

PERSONAL: Born January 9, 1933, in Anderson, SC; son of Edwin Clyde (a postmaster) and Mary Rachel (Taft) McCants. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Erskine College, B.A., 1954; Duke University, M.A., 1956; Erskine Theological Seminary, M.Div., 1970; Columbia Theological Seminary, D.Min., 1987. Politics: "Protestant/Presbyterian." Religion: Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: Music, opera, public speaking, teaching, travel.

ADDRESSES: Home—120 Walnut St., Winnsboro, SC 28180.

CAREER: Writer. Ordained Presbyterian minister, 1970. Elon University, Elon, NC, assistant professor of English, 1955–60; Erskine College, Due West, SC, assistant and associate professor of English, 1960–65; Gaston Community College, Dallas, NC, member of English faculty and department chair, 1965–67; Lauderdale Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, pastor, Lexington, VA, 1970–73; Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, director of church extension, 1974–77; Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Burlington, NC, pastor, 1977–78; Erskine Theological Seminary, member of faculty, 1978–82; Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Greenville, SC, pastor, 1982–93; Bethel Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Winnsboro, SC, pastor, 1993–98; First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Chester, SC, parttime minister of visitation, 1999–. Friends of South Carolina Libraries, chairman, 1998–2000; Fairfield County Library Commission, chairman, 1998–2002; Palmetto Book Alliance, board member and secretary, 2000–.

MEMBER: Circus Fans of America, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Catawba Presbytery, Winnsboro Music Study Club.

WRITINGS:

Opera for Libraries: A Guide to Core Works, Audio and Video Recordings, Books, and Serials, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 2003.

American Opera Singers and Their Recordings: Critical Commentaries and Discographies, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including Public Libraries, and to denominational church magazines.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Book on Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, for McFarland.

SIDELIGHTS: Clyde T. McCants told CA: "In one way or another, I've been writing most of my life. Miss Ledbetter's second grade class suffered through the first of my efforts—I composed the words to a song and sang it for my teacher and colleagues. Miss Ledbetter, wise lady that she was, recognized the impromptu nature of my composition and asked me to return to my seat. As a high school student, I imagined myself a decidedly public author. I set up a card table and typewriter in the front yard of our home and set down to write a fantasy short story suspiciously similar to H. Ryder Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. One result of that experiment was my first rejection notice. Apparently the editors at Amazing Stories did not spot a budding literary genius.

"Through the years I tried my hand at poetry (even I couldn't understand some of what I wrote) and eventually I taught myself word processing by writing a mercifully unpublished novel. It took this slow learner a long time to realize that neither fiction nor poetry would be my genre, but in a strange way the novel pointed me in the right direction. It was the story of a young South Carolina girl who through a series of adventures and misadventures eventually found herself singing Traviata on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. There, it turned out, was my subject—opera, not imaginary opera, but the real thing. In the meantime, I had taught college English for twelve years, had attended theological seminary to prepare for a life in Christian ministry, and had begun the weekly challenge of preparing a sermon. Both of these were obviously 'word professions.' The more I taught and the longer I preached, the more comfortable and assured I felt in the use of our beautiful language.

"All that remained for me was to put opera and words together, and my retirement enabled me to do just that. My first professionally published book, Opera for Libraries: A Guide to Core Works, Audio and Video Recordings, Books, and Serials, brought together two of my special interests. The second, American Opera Singers and Their Recordings: Critical Commentaries and Discographies, drew on almost a lifetime of listening and my ever growing personal collection of over 7,000 compact discs of operatic music. My current project is a book on Verdi's Aïda, one of my favorite operas. It took me seventy years to get started, but I work rapidly. After all, I have twenty or twenty-five more books to finish before I reach 100."