The Norman MacLean Reader

by MacLean, Norman

• ISBN13: 9780226500263
• ISBN10: 0226500268
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

"In his long life, Norman Maclean played many parts: fisherman, logger, firefighter, scholar, teacher. It was only after his biblical allotment of threescore years and ten, he liked to say, that he achieved fame as a writer. 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 family tragedy of the tide novella has proved to be one of the most enduring American stories. The posthumous publication in 1992 of Young Men and Fire only added to his reputation, reacquainting readers with the power of his spare, evocative prose." "Bringing together previously unpublished materials with incidental writings and selections from his two masterpieces, The Norman Maclean Reader is a substantial addition to Maclean's celebrated oeuvre, serving as the perfect introduction for readers new to Maclean, while offering longtime fans insight into his life and career."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

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 Contents

Introduction

The Custer Writings

Commanding General (Retired)

Department of the Little Bighorn

From the Unfinished Custer Manuscript

The Hill

The Sioux

The Cheyennes

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

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.