What Others Are Saying
“Profoundly Humane”
The strong narrative drive of these sketches makes them read almost like a novel. Kellams has a journalist’s skill, a storyteller’s heart, and a poet’s eye—a rare combination that renders his prose simultaneously vigorous and delicate. These exacting, unsentimental, and profoundly humane recollections of life in mid-20th Century Middle America sing with crisp wit and gentle wisdom. — Anne Pierson Wiese, winner of the Walt Whitman award for Floating City: Poems.
“The Very Stuff of an American Experience”
Dan Kellams does far more than merely reminisce in these sketches exploring a small-town boyhood in the mid-20th Century. With lyrical, subtle prose, this exacting writer situates the reader amid the very stuff of an American experience—faces, sounds, tastes, angles of light. The scene-setting is magnificent. Many of the portraits will make you laugh. Any reader who delves into Mistaken for a King for a minute encounters the profound grace that love and loyalty grant an existence. — Ben Miller, author of River Bend Chronicle: The Junkification of a Boyhood Idyll Amid the Curious Glory of Urban Iowa.
“A Wonderful Storyteller”
Dan Kellams is a wonderful storyteller with a terrific command of the language. Children and adults of all ages will enjoy his stories and treasure his words. His book, A Coach’s Life: Les Hipple and the Marion Indians, is packed with great detail, telling anecdotes, and tremendous empathy. The same is true of Mistaken for a King. — Jim Ecker, president, Metro Sports Report.
Small-Town Americana
“Kellams shares fond recollections of a childhood spent in the small town of Marion, Iowa . . . A disciplined narrative sprinkled with dry wit . . . The crisp prose [offers] an informative and sometimes-tender memoir of small-town Americana. – Kirkus Reviews
“Fascinating . . . [Kellams has] an eye, and a nose, for detail.”
– Todd Dorman, Cedar Rapids Gazette. (Read more)
A delightful and easy read.”
– Nancy Grindle, Marion Times. (Read more)
“Rich and beautiful . . . The best self-published memoir we’ve ever sold.”
– Paul Ingram, Prairie Lights bookstore
