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 Bringing together previously unpublished materials with incidental writings and selections from his more famous works, the Reader will serve as the perfect introduction for readers new to Maclean,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.

Various 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.

“"Weltzien has not only done great service for Norman Maclean''s readers, he has rightly expanded Maclean''s place in American literature. . . . For me, The Norman Maclean reader is discovered treasure."Tom Wylie, Bloomsbury Review”

"It is an enchanted tale.... I have read the story three times now, and each time it seems fuller." - Roger Sale, New York Review of Books "Altogether beautiful in the power of its feeling.... As beautiful as anything in Thoreau or Hemingway." - Alfred Kazin, Chicago Tribune Book World "In 1990 Norman Maclean died in body, but for hundreds of thousands of readers he will live as long as fish swim and books are made." - Annie Proulx "His description of the conflagration terrifies, but it is his battle with words, his effort to turn the story of the 13 men into tragedy that makes this book a classic." - New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, Best Books of 1992 "Maclean is always with the brave young dead.... They could not have found a storyteller with a better claim to represent their honor.... A great book." - James R. Kincaid, New York Times Book Review"

O. Alan Weltzien, professor of English at the University of Montana-Western, in Dillon, Montana, is the editor of The Literary Art and Activism of Rick Bass, coeditor of Coming Into McPhee Country, and the author of A Father and an Island: Reflections on Loss, a memoir.

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