Ken Tucker
Dr. Kenneth Tucker was born December 2, 1940, in Louisville, Kentucky. His parents were Earl and Catherine Tucker (née Weber). He received his B. A. (1963) and his M.A (1965) from the University of Louisville. In 1970 he received his Ph. D. from the University of Kentucky. In that same year he was employed by Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky, where was promoted to full professor and continued to teach until his full retirement in 2001.
Kenneth Tucker's academic specialties are Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama, and for nearly thirty years he taught introductory and graduate Shakespeare courses to numerous students of Western Kentucky. Of course, he also taught courses in freshman composition, general humanities and introductions to literature, as well as surveys of English and continental literature of the Renaissance in translation plus non-dramatic literature of the Renaissance.
He has written a number of book reviews, including a number for The Shakespeare Newsletter. He has also contributed reviews of British productions of Shakespeare to the same periodical. He has had articles published on the following writers of the English Renaissance: Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Beaumont and Fletcher, John Webster, John Ford, Philip Massinger, and Thomas Middleton. He has also written on such diverse writers as H. G. Wells, Torquato Tasso, Robert Penn Warren, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and H. P. Lovecraft. He has also published articles on the Boris Karloff-Bela Lugosi horror film classic The Black Cat and upon the 1960's enigmatic cult television series The Prisoner.
Dr. Tucker now devotes his time to reading, studying foreign languages, and writing.
His novels fall into no set genre and at times mix genres. Generally, they fit into the categories of southern Gothic, realism, horror,fantasy, satire, humorous fantasy, and science fiction. "I write what interests me!" Tucker says. "I write the story that begs me to tell it."
Dr. Tucker is a known authority on Eliot Ness. His book Eliot Ness and the Untouchables is now in its second edition. Dr. Tucker receives numerous questions about Ness and the movies and television series based on his career.
He with Dr. Bill Koenecke founded the Murray Authors Support Group. Unfortunately, because of health issues, Bill has had to withdraw from active participation. Nevertheless, our group, few but valiant, meets once a month at the Brookdale, formerly Emeritus of Murray, on the second Saturday of each month.Our purpose is to advise and help writers, whether published or beginners, learn about the publishing world today. We consider such topics as self-publishing versus traditional publishing, seeking agents, finding proofreaders, etc. We also review grammar, discuss the advice of well-known authors, and critique one another's writing. (No one is obligated to have one's writing critiqued.) Anyone interested in writing is welcome to attend. For information call Ken at 270-753-6886.
Since I last undated this page, three relatively new novels by me have been published. GOODBYE, MUIRSHEEN DURKIN is a wild, fantastical space adventure in the manner of Voltaire's CANDIDE and Vonnegut's novels. A dsyutopa on Earth searches for a Utopia in the asteroid belt.
The second is NO MARRIAGES IN HEAVEN, my foray into the hard-boiled detective genre. A small time Louisville private eye is hired to investigate the supposedly accidental death of his fiancee. He hesitates, fearing that he may learn something detrimental about her, but investigates her possible murder and finds himself linked to a chain of violent events.
The third is THE FAMILIAR COMPOUND TRICKSTER, ELIOT NESS'S MOST DANGEROUS ENEMY. I have long been intrigued by Eliot Ness and his career, especially the officially still unsolved case of the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. After dealing with Al Capone, Ness became pubic safety directior of Cleveland, Ohio, and made significant incursions upon organized crime. One case apparently thwarted him. The case of the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. In the 1930s a serial killer held the city at bay. At least thirteen dismembered bodies were discovered a about the city. Ness claimed that he learned the killer's identity, that the person was currently restrained, but that he could not disclose the suspect's identity. The lawman's enemies claimed that he was covering up his failure to solve the crimes. Nowadays we know that Ness did identify the suspect, but could not prosecute him because of political interference. Although other novels have been written on his event, mine tries to portray Ness as he was, a basically decent man, who made some bad judgments thaFault affected his marriages and his career. The book includes actual crime photos.
My latest novel is THE ZEBONITES' OUTPOST, an unusual science fiction in several ways. For one thing it took me 54 years to complete it. The first draft was written from 1963-1965. I wanted it to be a different kind of science fiction novel, with realistic self-conflicted characters, such as those I had read about in Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and Hemingway--not an easy task. Sci-fi tends to downplay characterization in favor of adventure or emphasis on scientific concepts. Luckily I hit upon a plot that would allow me to probe characters deeply. But when I came to the conclusion in which the main male and female characters confront their relationsho problems, I ran into the only writer's block I ever encountered. Perhaps I felt I lacked experience to portray such a complex scene. Meanwhile, I got my doctorate and began teaching at Murray State. In 1974, after I had established my classes, I wrote a second draft. But guess what ? I still couldn't finish the finale chapter. In fact it wasn't until 1980 that I made myself do so. By that time publishers were taking very few new writers. When self-publishing came around 2005, I worked on several completed novels and wrote a number of others. Last year I decided to go back to the first novel I had written as an adult. It was a coming of age novel in which I found my literary self. It has a special place in my heart. The plot is unusual. Instead of having aliens invade the Earth, I have aliens establish a military base on our planet and thereby threaten to involve us in an interstellar war. In all my reading of sci-fi, I have come across only three works that feature such a plot. (Undoubtedly there are others). My protagonist struggles with whether or not he should join a conspiracy that plans to drive the creatures from the earth. Either choice could involve atomic retaliation.