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The Norman Maclean Reader
In his eighty-seven years, Norman Maclean played many parts: fisherman, logger, firefighter, scholar, teacher. But it was a role he took up late in life, that of writer, that won him enduring fame and critical acclaim—as well as the devotion of readers worldwide. Though the 1976 collection A River Runs Through It and Other Stories was the only book Maclean published in his lifetime, it was an unexpected success, and the moving family tragedy of the title novella—based largely on Maclean’s memories of his childhood home in Montana—has proved to be one of the most enduring American stories ever written.
The Norman Maclean Reader is a wonderful addition to Maclean’s celebrated oeuvre. Bringing together previously unpublished materials with incidental writings and selections from his more famous works, the Reader will serve as the perfect introduction for readers new to Maclean, while offering longtime fans new insight into his life and career.
In this evocative collection, Maclean as both a writer and a man becomes evident. Perceptive, intimate essays deal with his career as a teacher and a literary scholar, as well as the wealth of family stories for which Maclean is famous. Complete with a generous selection of letters, as well as excerpts from a 1986 interview, The Norman Maclean Reader provides a fully fleshed-out portrait of this much admired author, showing us a writer fully aware of the nuances of his craft, and a man as at home in the academic environment of the University of Chicago as in the quiet mountains of his beloved Montana.
Multifarious and moving, the works collected in The Norman Maclean Reader serve as both a summation and a celebration, giving readers a chance once again to hear one of American literature’s most distinctive voices.
The Norman Maclean Reader is a wonderful addition to Maclean’s celebrated oeuvre. Bringing together previously unpublished materials with incidental writings and selections from his more famous works, the Reader will serve as the perfect introduction for readers new to Maclean, while offering longtime fans new insight into his life and career.
In this evocative collection, Maclean as both a writer and a man becomes evident. Perceptive, intimate essays deal with his career as a teacher and a literary scholar, as well as the wealth of family stories for which Maclean is famous. Complete with a generous selection of letters, as well as excerpts from a 1986 interview, The Norman Maclean Reader provides a fully fleshed-out portrait of this much admired author, showing us a writer fully aware of the nuances of his craft, and a man as at home in the academic environment of the University of Chicago as in the quiet mountains of his beloved Montana.
Multifarious and moving, the works collected in The Norman Maclean Reader serve as both a summation and a celebration, giving readers a chance once again to hear one of American literature’s most distinctive voices.
- GenresNonfiction
304 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2008
44 people are currently reading
226 people want to read
About the author
Norman Maclean
56 books410 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Born in Clarinda, Iowa, on December 23, 1902, Maclean was the son of Clara Davidson (1873-1952) and the Rev. John Maclean (1862-1941), a Scottish Presbyterian minister, who managed much of the education of the young Norman and his brother Paul (1906-1938) until 1913. The family relocated to Missoula, Montana in 1909. The following years were a considerable influence on and inspiration to his writings, appearing prominently in the short story The Woods, Books, and Truant Officers (1977), and semi-autobiographical novella A River Runs Through It (1976).
Too young to enlist in the military during World War I, Maclean worked in logging camps and for the United States Forest Service in what is now the Bitterroot National Forest of northwestern Montana. The novella USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky and the story "Black Ghost" in Young Men and Fire (1992) are semi-fictionalized accounts of these experiences.
Maclean attended Dartmouth College, where he served as editor-in-chief of the humor magazine the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern; the editor-in-chief to follow him was Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. He was also a member of the Sphinx (senior society) and Beta Theta Pi. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1924, and chose to remain in Hanover, New Hampshire, and serve as an instructor until 1926—a time he recalled in "This Quarter I Am Taking McKeon: A Few Remarks on the Art of Teaching." He began graduate studies in English at the University of Chicago in 1928. Three years later he was hired as a professor at University of Chicago, where he received three Quantrell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. On 24 September 1931 Maclean married Jessie Burns (died 1968), a red-headed Scots-Irish woman from Wolf Creek, Montana. They later had two children: a daughter Jean (born in 1942), now a lawyer; and a son, John (born in 1943), now a journalist and author of Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire (1999), and two other books, Fire & Ashes (2003) and The Thirtymile Fire: A Chronicle of Bravery and Betrayal (2007).
In 1940, Maclean earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago where during World War II he declined a commission in Naval intelligence to serve as Dean of Students. During the war he also served as Director of the Institute on Military Studies, and co-authored Manual of Instruction in Military Maps and Aerial Photographs. At the University of Chicago, Maclean taught Shakespeare and the Romantic poets, and he produced two scholarly articles, "From Action to Image: Theories of the Lyric in the Eighteenth Century" and "Episode, Scene, Speech, and Word: The Madness of Lear." (The latter essay elaborates a theory of tragedy that Maclean would revisit in his later work; the essay is available here.) From approximately 1959 to 1963, Maclean worked on a book about George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn that he never completed, but from which excerpts were recently published. During his last decade on the Chicago faculty, Maclean held an endowed chair as William Rainey Harper Professor of English. After his retirement in 1973, he began, as his children Jean and John had often encouraged him, to write down the stories he liked to tell. His most acclaimed story, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories was published in 1976, the first work of original fiction published by the University of Chicago Press. This title was nominated by a selection committee to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Letters in 1977, but the full committee ignored the nomination and did not award a Pulitzer in that category for the year. A River Runs Through It was adapted into a motion picture directed by Robert Redford
Born in Clarinda, Iowa, on December 23, 1902, Maclean was the son of Clara Davidson (1873-1952) and the Rev. John Maclean (1862-1941), a Scottish Presbyterian minister, who managed much of the education of the young Norman and his brother Paul (1906-1938) until 1913. The family relocated to Missoula, Montana in 1909. The following years were a considerable influence on and inspiration to his writings, appearing prominently in the short story The Woods, Books, and Truant Officers (1977), and semi-autobiographical novella A River Runs Through It (1976).
Too young to enlist in the military during World War I, Maclean worked in logging camps and for the United States Forest Service in what is now the Bitterroot National Forest of northwestern Montana. The novella USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky and the story "Black Ghost" in Young Men and Fire (1992) are semi-fictionalized accounts of these experiences.
Maclean attended Dartmouth College, where he served as editor-in-chief of the humor magazine the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern; the editor-in-chief to follow him was Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. He was also a member of the Sphinx (senior society) and Beta Theta Pi. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1924, and chose to remain in Hanover, New Hampshire, and serve as an instructor until 1926—a time he recalled in "This Quarter I Am Taking McKeon: A Few Remarks on the Art of Teaching." He began graduate studies in English at the University of Chicago in 1928. Three years later he was hired as a professor at University of Chicago, where he received three Quantrell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. On 24 September 1931 Maclean married Jessie Burns (died 1968), a red-headed Scots-Irish woman from Wolf Creek, Montana. They later had two children: a daughter Jean (born in 1942), now a lawyer; and a son, John (born in 1943), now a journalist and author of Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire (1999), and two other books, Fire & Ashes (2003) and The Thirtymile Fire: A Chronicle of Bravery and Betrayal (2007).
In 1940, Maclean earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago where during World War II he declined a commission in Naval intelligence to serve as Dean of Students. During the war he also served as Director of the Institute on Military Studies, and co-authored Manual of Instruction in Military Maps and Aerial Photographs. At the University of Chicago, Maclean taught Shakespeare and the Romantic poets, and he produced two scholarly articles, "From Action to Image: Theories of the Lyric in the Eighteenth Century" and "Episode, Scene, Speech, and Word: The Madness of Lear." (The latter essay elaborates a theory of tragedy that Maclean would revisit in his later work; the essay is available here.) From approximately 1959 to 1963, Maclean worked on a book about George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn that he never completed, but from which excerpts were recently published. During his last decade on the Chicago faculty, Maclean held an endowed chair as William Rainey Harper Professor of English. After his retirement in 1973, he began, as his children Jean and John had often encouraged him, to write down the stories he liked to tell. His most acclaimed story, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories was published in 1976, the first work of original fiction published by the University of Chicago Press. This title was nominated by a selection committee to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Letters in 1977, but the full committee ignored the nomination and did not award a Pulitzer in that category for the year. A River Runs Through It was adapted into a motion picture directed by Robert Redford
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 7, 2016
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.”
I have always loved these sentences from Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It. This book was the only one published by Maclean. He came to writing after a long and distinguished career teaching English Literature at the University of Chicago. Despite his expertise in English Lyric Poetry and Shakespeare what Maclean wrote after his retirement were family stories from his native Montana. What The Norman Maclean Reader abundantly illustrates is that the beautiful stories he published were works that were labored upon for many years. The Reader is a mixture of essays, letters and some selections from an abandoned work on Custer and The Battle of the Little Bighorn. I am grateful to be able to read these extracts but saddened that Maclean never managed to finish the work. The Little Bighorn and it's aftermath is a seminal event in the westward expansion.of America and exemplifies the tragic clash between the U.S. Army and the last free Native Americans. Other highlights are Maclean playing pool with a famous physicist, more fishing stories. The letters are a charming mixture of his problems finishing the Custer book, life in rural Montana, and his efforts to tell the story of the 1949 Mann Gulch fire that claimed the lives of thirteen young firefighters. This is the story that was published posthumously as Young Men and Fire in 1990.
The Reader amply illustrates the precise care and attention that Maclean brought to every sentence, indeed to every word. His literary output was small for two reasons: first, he only started to write when he was nearly seventy; second, and perhaps more importantly, he was a perfectionist.
Another part of River that I deeply admire is this, wonderfully, lapidary sentence:
"All there is to thinking ... is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren't noticing which makes you see something that isn't even visible."
I have always loved these sentences from Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It. This book was the only one published by Maclean. He came to writing after a long and distinguished career teaching English Literature at the University of Chicago. Despite his expertise in English Lyric Poetry and Shakespeare what Maclean wrote after his retirement were family stories from his native Montana. What The Norman Maclean Reader abundantly illustrates is that the beautiful stories he published were works that were labored upon for many years. The Reader is a mixture of essays, letters and some selections from an abandoned work on Custer and The Battle of the Little Bighorn. I am grateful to be able to read these extracts but saddened that Maclean never managed to finish the work. The Little Bighorn and it's aftermath is a seminal event in the westward expansion.of America and exemplifies the tragic clash between the U.S. Army and the last free Native Americans. Other highlights are Maclean playing pool with a famous physicist, more fishing stories. The letters are a charming mixture of his problems finishing the Custer book, life in rural Montana, and his efforts to tell the story of the 1949 Mann Gulch fire that claimed the lives of thirteen young firefighters. This is the story that was published posthumously as Young Men and Fire in 1990.
The Reader amply illustrates the precise care and attention that Maclean brought to every sentence, indeed to every word. His literary output was small for two reasons: first, he only started to write when he was nearly seventy; second, and perhaps more importantly, he was a perfectionist.
Another part of River that I deeply admire is this, wonderfully, lapidary sentence:
"All there is to thinking ... is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren't noticing which makes you see something that isn't even visible."
February 3, 2012
At its best, this collection is remarkable. Some of Maclean's essays are great, and his letters to Marie Borroff are amazingly charming and witty. I can imagine some fans of Maclean's flipping for this book, but I bogged down in the Custer stuff that, between the selected chapters and the letters to Robert Utley just make up too many pages for someone not interested in the battle. If you've read his other books, you'll find plenty here to like, but it might be worth picking and choosing your spots.
April 10, 2015
I am pleasantly disposed toward Maclean’s writing. It’s not that it’s a simple style, it’s wily, there is an obvious effort behind the lines. It’s like you sense that a master has finely polished them. If an odd tone is played, there is a reason. His “Young Men and Fire”, although unfinished, showed his workmanship over the lines, there covering a group of doomed firefighters as well as the author himself on a self discovery mission. In this book, you find that he worked on “Young Men and Fire” for years and hadn’t finished it. Nor had he finished a book on Custer and Little Big Horn that he worked on for years, it remains unpublished. There are excerpts from these and other writings of Maclean in this collection. There is also a somewhat long analysis by the editor that I did learn a lot from. The collection ends with a selection of letters by Maclean to various people in his life. I think I learned more about Maclean from the letters than from the other pieces in this collection. It was very interesting to see in the letters and other writings how Maclean tried out turns of phrases. You could see some appear at different times before making their way into his published work. In his letters you could see the mix of how he thought and how he wrote. He seemed to be a little less assured in the word choices here, but the ideas he got across were well thought out. I’ll include a paragraph from one of his letters that I appreciate because I too like good homemade jelly…
What a nice way to give thanks.
Thank you very much for the jelly, which I have just finished, which would seem like a good time to thank you for it, except that it is a sadder time than I thought it would be. I like jelly very much, and was unhappy to see it go.
What a nice way to give thanks.
October 5, 2023
This is a very good collection. If you want to learn more about Maclean as a man, as a writer, and as a teacher--and if you want to know about why he wrote and how he wrote--this book is worth your time. It consists of three parts: (1) his unfinished Custer writings, (2) his essays and speeches (minus two significant critical essays which were published elsewhere and aren’t included here) and (3) a small selection of his letters.
My favorite selections: "This Quarter I am Taking McKeon" (on teaching), "The Woods, Books, and Truant Officers" (on purpose for A Rivers Runs Through It, his Father's homeschooling, and prose rhythm), "The Pure and the Good: On Baseball and Backpacking" (on craftsmanship and excellence), "An Incident" (on writing A River Runs Through It and form), and "Retrievers Good and Bad" (first attempt at writing of his family, about his fahter's duck dogs and his brother's death).
Norman Maclean was a writer's writer, a genuine craftsman. I’ve often wondered why A River Runs Though It and his other stories and books have such magnetism, how they seem to be so simply written and plainly told and yet to have such power. After reading these essays and speeches, I think I know the reason.
My favorite selections: "This Quarter I am Taking McKeon" (on teaching), "The Woods, Books, and Truant Officers" (on purpose for A Rivers Runs Through It, his Father's homeschooling, and prose rhythm), "The Pure and the Good: On Baseball and Backpacking" (on craftsmanship and excellence), "An Incident" (on writing A River Runs Through It and form), and "Retrievers Good and Bad" (first attempt at writing of his family, about his fahter's duck dogs and his brother's death).
Norman Maclean was a writer's writer, a genuine craftsman. I’ve often wondered why A River Runs Though It and his other stories and books have such magnetism, how they seem to be so simply written and plainly told and yet to have such power. After reading these essays and speeches, I think I know the reason.
January 6, 2021
For die-hards only. This mixes abandoned work with speeches, letters, occasional essays, interviews and excerpts from River. It seems unbelievable that the man who wrote the closing paragraphs of that marvellous book also wrote the pages of lethal dullness excavated here.
Thankfully things pick up on page 93. MacLean regarded the essay ‘Retrievers Good and Bad’ as a failure - a clear mistake. The whole piece is a gem and its focus on ‘reminiscent stories’ plainly set him on the path to writing his only published book.
Thankfully things pick up on page 93. MacLean regarded the essay ‘Retrievers Good and Bad’ as a failure - a clear mistake. The whole piece is a gem and its focus on ‘reminiscent stories’ plainly set him on the path to writing his only published book.
March 26, 2025
Some incredible work in here
December 30, 2020
"Later, I hope to refine it, but I'll start by saying that a great teacher is a tough guy who cares deeply about something that is hard to understand." ~This Quarter I am Taking Mckeon
A collection of Maclean's works, published anthology-style. Unpublished stories, articles, magazine pieces, interviews, and letters help showcase the inner workings of Maclean.
It was good to be a character study, as if Norman was a character whose characteristics you can draw from his works.
Pretty much only interesting if you're already into Maclean, although there are some pieces within it that I feel everyone should read: This Quarter I am Taking Mckeon (quoted above), Retrievers Good and Bad, and Billiards is a Good Game are some of these stories.
A collection of Maclean's works, published anthology-style. Unpublished stories, articles, magazine pieces, interviews, and letters help showcase the inner workings of Maclean.
It was good to be a character study, as if Norman was a character whose characteristics you can draw from his works.
Pretty much only interesting if you're already into Maclean, although there are some pieces within it that I feel everyone should read: This Quarter I am Taking Mckeon (quoted above), Retrievers Good and Bad, and Billiards is a Good Game are some of these stories.
September 8, 2023
Excellent writing
The book and movie are at the top of my list of favorites. I like fly fishing and hiking in the woods so it is not hard to understand why i am attracted to Norman Maclean's writing.
The book and movie are at the top of my list of favorites. I like fly fishing and hiking in the woods so it is not hard to understand why i am attracted to Norman Maclean's writing.
May 30, 2013
This is a nice collection and sample of Norman Maclean, including pieces from his more acclaimed works as well as published and unpublished writings, lectures and letters. The Norman Maclean Reader gave me a greater appreciation of the depth of this writers craft, yet leaves me wondering what the world of literature would have looked like had he starting writing and publishing his stores early in life, instead of after a full and accomplished life of scholarship and teaching. I'm sure his students are glad of his choice!
More than anything else, this book -- as with with Young Men and Fire -- leave me with a greater appreciation of the work, the endurance, the pain and the dedication behind good writing.
More than anything else, this book -- as with with Young Men and Fire -- leave me with a greater appreciation of the work, the endurance, the pain and the dedication behind good writing.
December 15, 2014
This is a collection of sometimes unfinished writings by Norman MacLean. They are not all fully polished and the letters had not been written for publication, but wow, this is devastatingly good!
MacLean's style is individual and despite the decades since I read A River Runs Through It, I recognized his voice immediately.
Partway through a piece subtitled A Few Remarks on the Art of Teaching, I felt a melancholy that I never had the opportunity to have him as a teacher. I started and realized I was wrong, that I just taken a master class.
MacLean's style is individual and despite the decades since I read A River Runs Through It, I recognized his voice immediately.
Partway through a piece subtitled A Few Remarks on the Art of Teaching, I felt a melancholy that I never had the opportunity to have him as a teacher. I started and realized I was wrong, that I just taken a master class.
July 15, 2009
His prose style is spare and clean, but he still is able to explore complex ideas. He's especially concerned with the notion of defeat. His explorations approach the tragic, but more often they seem to be from the point of view of the bystander who knows what the end will be but is powerless to change or prevent the event. I suppose it's the same dynamic that he uses in A River Runs Through It. One brother watching another and powerless to alter fate.
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March 24, 2009I'm not sure that more background about a river runs through it is necessary or helpful, but there are some good essays. especially good is him talking about watching michelson (of interferometer fame) playing billiards at uchicago.
January 4, 2010
When he's good, he's terrific.
September 5, 2015
free ebook UofC. mini-read. good, work
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews