Norman Maclean

Author profile

born

January 23, 1902 in Clarinda, Iowa, The United States

died

August 02, 1990

gender

male

website

http://www.normanmaclean.com/

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

edit data

Librarian 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).[1]

Too young to enlist in the military during World War I, Maclean w...more Librarian 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).[1]

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(less)

combine editions
Books by Norman Maclean

Average rating: 4.05 · 8,369 ratings · 767 reviews · 24 distinct works

	A River Runs Through It and Other Stories 4.06 avg rating — 7,172 ratings — published 1976 — 33 editions	My rating:
	Young Men and Fire 3.93 avg rating — 1,041 ratings — published 1992 — 13 editions	My rating:
	A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean, Ivan Doig 4.22 avg rating — 92 ratings — published 2000	My rating:
	The Norman Maclean Reader by Norman Maclean, O. Alan Weltzien (Editor) 4.05 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Usfs 1919: Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky by Norman Maclean, MacLean Norman 4.18 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 1994 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Norman Maclean Reading: A River Runs Through It (Excerpts) Young Men and Fire 4.30 avg rating — 10 ratings	My rating:
	Montana, 1919 4.30 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 1994	My rating:
	Norman MacLean Collection: River Runs Through It, Young Men, Big Blackfoot by Norman Maclean, Ivan Doig, John Maclean 4.29 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2001	My rating:
	The Gold Thread: And Other Stories of Young Faith by Norman Maclean, Clay Clarkson (Editor) 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2001	My rating:
	On the Big Blackfoot by Norman Maclean (Author, Narrator), John Maclean (Narrator) 2.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2000 — 3 editions	My rating:

More books by Norman Maclean…

Quotes by Norman Maclean

“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 am haunted by waters.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

tags: flood , river , time , water , words

104 people liked it

“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

tags: life , love

54 people liked it

“My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things-trout as well as eternal salvation-come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

36 people liked it

See all Norman Maclean's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Between the Lines: Last Letter Game (Writers/Authors)	340	246	Mar 07, 2010 12:55pm
The Seasonal Read...: 30.2 - Cheryl TX's task: Alphabetically Speaking	22	128	Jan 18, 2011 10:15am
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2010-2011 Completed Tasks (do not delete any posts)	2596	666	Feb 28, 2011 09:05pm
Chicks On Lit: Title and Author Game	4039	1443	Jan 14, 2012 06:59am
Around the World ...: Lisa T USA roadtrip	11	16	Jan 23, 2012 04:24pm
Around the World ...: Montana	5	23	Mar 28, 2012 03:01pm
The Book Addicts!: Bob’s 2012 Group Reading Challenge 12 Decades, Plus 2	31	169	May 23, 2012 06:17am
The Next Best Boo...: * Your Latest Splurge	9826	13597	May 27, 2012 10:59am
Gigi's Company: The Last Letter Game (Book Titles)	1771	718	May 28, 2012 04:48pm
Chicks On Lit: what are you reading.	9309	6578	3 hours, 3 min ago

More…

Norman's Fans (41)

Norman Maclean

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Norman Maclean

Quotes by Norman Maclean

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Books by Norman Maclean