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More copies of this ISBN:The Norman MacLean Readerby Norman Maclean
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)"Norman Maclean, who died in 1990, was a big two-hearted writer in several respects: He had one foot planted firmly in fiction, the other in nonfiction; his life was one of perennial migration between the urbane setting of Chicago and the rough-hewn environs of a lake in Montana; professionally, he was an academic of 45 years' standing who took to writing principally after his retirement. There is a river that runs through Maclean's work, a strong and dark current of defeat, and if we needed further proof of that, both from his self-testimony and as evidenced in previously unpublished writing, it has arrived in the form of The Norman Maclean Reader." Art Winslow, Los Angeles Times (read the entire Los Angeles Times review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:In his eighty-seven years, Norman Maclean (1902–90) 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 acclaimas 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 novellabased largely on Macleans memories of early twentieth-century Montanahas proved to be one of the most enduring American stories ever written. The posthumous publication in 1992 of Young Men and Fire, Macleans deeply personal investigative account of a deadly forest fire, only added to his reputation, reacquainting readers with the power of his sparse, evocative prose. With The Norman Maclean Reader, the University of Chicago Press is proud to add a fitting third volume to Macleans celebrated oeuvre. Bringing together previously unpublished materials with incidental writings and selections from his two masterpieces, the Reader will serve as the perfect introduction for readers new to Maclean, while offering longtime fans new insight into his life and career. Much of the pleasure of The Norman Maclean Reader is the rounded picture it gives of Maclean the man. A series of witty, perceptive personal essays present Maclean from a variety of angles: in “This Quarter I Am Taking McKeon,” the master teacher distills the lessons of decades in the classroom; in “The Pure and the Good: On Baseball and Backpacking,” Maclean the scholar turns his attention to poetic rhythm and the importance of craft; in “Retrievers Good and Bad,” we see Maclean the memoirist first beginning to draw on his wealth of family stories. A generous selection of letters, as well as excerpts from a 1986 interview, serve to flesh out the Readers portrait of Maclean, showing us a writer fully aware of the nuances of his craft, and a man as at home in the recondite atmosphere of the University of Chicago as in the quiet hills of his beloved Montana. The letters find Maclean corresponding about fishing with Nick Lyons, the first significant reviewer of A River Runs Through It; about literature and teaching with Marie Borroff, a former student who had become a professor of literature at Yale; about the Mann Gulch fire with Lois Jansson, the widow of one of Macleans sources; and about General Custer with historian Robert Utley. Macleans writings on Custer comprise the most extensive unpublished material in the Reader. Fascinated by Custers tragic end and posthumous fame, Maclean dedicated years in the late 1950s to studying the general, and though he was never able to shape his chapters on the topic into a complete book, to read them now is revelatory: as he explores the man and myth of Custer, we see Maclean groping toward the rigorous yet personal hybrid form of historical storytelling that he would employ to such effect in Young Men and Fire. 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 literatures most distinctive voices. Review:"Maclean (1902 — 1990), an English professor at the University of Chicago, did not establish himself as a writer until late in his life, but quickly gained national acclaim in 1989 for A River Runs Through It and Other Stories. His posthumous nonfiction account of doomed firefighters, Young Men and Fire, was also praised by critics. Excerpts from both of these works are in this anthology, skillfully edited by Weltzien, to provide a broad and chronological selection from nearly four decades of Maclean's writing. The book includes six previously unpublished pieces, five of them chapters from his uncompleted book on Custer, written between 1959 and 1963. Another standout piece is a 1986 interview in which Maclean ranges widely from the rhythms of prose, his own influences and his native state of Montana to creative writing, fly-fishing and publishers who rejected A River Runs Through It. Readers of the two earlier books will find, as Weltzien phrases it, 'new biographical insights into one of the most remarkable and unexpected careers in American letters.'" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"Maclean (1902-1990), an English professor at the University of Chicago, did not establish himself as a writer until late in his life, but quickly gained national acclaim in 1989 [sic] for A River Runs Through It and Other Stories. His posthumous nonfiction account of doomed firefighters, Young Men and Fire, was also praised by critics. Excerpts from both of these works are in this anthology, skillfully edited by Weltzien, to provide a broad and chronological selection from nearly four decades of Macleans writing. The book includes six previously unpublished pieces, five of them chapters from his uncompleted book on Custer, written between 1959 and 1963. Another standout piece is a 1986 interview in which Maclean ranges widely from the rhythms of prose, his own influences and his native state of Montana to creative writing, fly-fishing, and publishers who rejected A River Runs Through It. Readers of the two earlier books will find, as Weltzien prhases it, new biographical insights into one of the most remarkable and unexpected careers in American letters."-Publishers Weekly Review:"Coming late to fiction writing, Maclean (1902-90) wrote his first book, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, at age 70, after he had retired from a 45-year teaching career at the Review:"Bringing together letters, essays, speeches, and five draft chapters from his unfinished first book, the collection shows a man worrying through the mechanics of putting a story together. All writers may be self-obsessed, but in the case of Maclean, the rough and unfinished works, the drama of his revisions and deliberations lead us back to a central dynamic of his most finished work. Maclean's stories are precisely about the difficulties and obstructions of storytelling. As such, he is a more difficult but more rewarding writer than one known simply for old-time tales of a lost American west. . . . The Norman Maclean Reader fills out and makes more human the impressions of the restless, inquiring storyteller we saw in previously published works. In his writings, at their best, we too feel the thrusts and strains. He is a writer of great beauty, in his own terms." -Daniel Swift, Financial Times Review:"Coming late to fiction writing, Maclean (1902-90) wrote his first book, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, at age 70, after he had retired from a 45-year teaching career at the University of Chicago. That book, consisting of two novellas and a short story, brought rave reviews and even more acclaim after Robert Redford's film adaptation. This book introduces readers to Maclean's life and writing, collecting previously unpublished essays, stories, letters, and selections from his two books. Rooted in his native Montana, where he returned every summer to the cabin he had helped his father build, the man who emerges from these pages is funny, irreverent, and thoughtful. He was homeschooled until he was 11 and absorbed his father's lessons in writing lean, penetrating prose. Of particular interest are Maclean's letters, which give careful, insightful writing advice to friends and former students. This book will appeal to those who love fly-fishing, hunting, the Forest Service, and, above all, good writing."-Library Journal About the AuthorNorman Maclean (1902-1990), woodsman, scholar, teacher, and storyteller, grew up in the Western Rocky Mountains of Montana and worked for many years in logging camps and for the United States Forestry Service before beginning his academic career. He was the William Rainey Harper Professor of English at the University of Chicago until 1973. O. Alan Weltzien is professor of English at the University of Montana Western, in Dillon, Montana. He is the author of A Father and an Island: Reflections on Loss, a memoir (2008), coeditor of Coming into McPhee Country: John McPhee and the Art of Literary Nonfiction (2003), and editor of The Literary Art and Activism of Rick Bass (2001). Table of ContentsIntroduction by O. Alan Weltzien
THE CUSTER WRITINGS Edward S. Luce: Commanding General (Retired), Department of the Little Bighorn From the Unfinished Custer Manuscript Chapter 1: The Hill Chapter 2: The Sioux Chapter 3: The Cheyennes Chapter 4: In Business Last Chapter: Shrine to Defeat A MACLEAN SAMPLER "This Quarter I am Taking McKeon": A Few Remarks on the Art of Teaching "Billiards is a Good Game": Gamesmanship and America's First Nobel Prize Scientist Retrievers Good and Bad Logging and Pimping and "Your Pal, Jim" An Incident The Woods, Books, and Truant Officers The Pure and the Good On Baseball and Backpacking Black Ghost From Young Men and Fire Interview with Norman Maclean SELECTED LETTERS Letters to Robert M. Utley, 1955-1979 Letters to Marie Borroff, 1949-1986 Letters to Nick Lyons 1976-1981 Letters to Lois Jansson, 1979-1981 Acknowledgements Suggestions for Further Reading What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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