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A River Runs through It and Other Stories
Kindle Edition
Published December 22, 2022
107 people are currently reading
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About the author
Norman Maclean
51 books416 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 17, 2026
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean was nominated for The Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1977, and was adapted for the big screen – the film was directed by Robert Redford and it stars Bradd Pitt in a leading role – you find notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other relevant lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and YouTube channel
9 out of 10
I have written a note on A River Runs Through It https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... if in fact I do not have two reviews on this, and the present one would make it three…it does not matter, both the book and the motion picture are excellent and worth reading and watching
Paul Maclean is the rebellious young man, in the movie, Brad Pitt is charming as this endearing personage, who gets into trouble, but most often for the right reason: at this dance, he beats a fellow who was racist, insulted the Native American woman who was with him, and then he ‘got what he deserved’
Norman Maclean is Paul’s brother, and a more private man, the two get together very well, even if they are different – Norman falls in love with Jessie Burns, while his sibling seems to be more volatile, enjoying his freedom and appearing to be less inclined to settle down, marry, he is a reporter with some achievements
Paul has interviewed president Coolidge https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... there is a Coolidge Effect in psychology and here is the anecdote – some one hundred years ago, the president went to visit this farm, with the first lady, who was a clever woman, unlike the present moron
The first lady sees this rooster who is on top of the hens very often and asks how often does he do that and the answer is some impressive number – I forgot, but it could be one hundred times per day – and the spouse wants this person to share the information with her husband, and the president has his own question
When he hears about the big number, he wants to know ‘is it always the same hen?’ and the answer is ‘no, it is always a different one’, and Coolidge tells them to inform his wife about this…ergo, we have this Coolidge Effect, I have encountered this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
As the Honeymoon Effect, the notion that one can be married with Hale Berry – the example was given ten years ago maybe, when she was the number one most attractive woman, as designated by People, or some other such magazine – and still, after two years, one is tempted to try and change, not that this always happen
To avoid that, you could try and read The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work by John Gottman, the ultimate expert on relationships, a psychologist who has an accuracy rate witch is about ninety percent https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... he knows which couples work, and which will not
9 out of 10
I have written a note on A River Runs Through It https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... if in fact I do not have two reviews on this, and the present one would make it three…it does not matter, both the book and the motion picture are excellent and worth reading and watching
Paul Maclean is the rebellious young man, in the movie, Brad Pitt is charming as this endearing personage, who gets into trouble, but most often for the right reason: at this dance, he beats a fellow who was racist, insulted the Native American woman who was with him, and then he ‘got what he deserved’
Norman Maclean is Paul’s brother, and a more private man, the two get together very well, even if they are different – Norman falls in love with Jessie Burns, while his sibling seems to be more volatile, enjoying his freedom and appearing to be less inclined to settle down, marry, he is a reporter with some achievements
Paul has interviewed president Coolidge https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... there is a Coolidge Effect in psychology and here is the anecdote – some one hundred years ago, the president went to visit this farm, with the first lady, who was a clever woman, unlike the present moron
The first lady sees this rooster who is on top of the hens very often and asks how often does he do that and the answer is some impressive number – I forgot, but it could be one hundred times per day – and the spouse wants this person to share the information with her husband, and the president has his own question
When he hears about the big number, he wants to know ‘is it always the same hen?’ and the answer is ‘no, it is always a different one’, and Coolidge tells them to inform his wife about this…ergo, we have this Coolidge Effect, I have encountered this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
As the Honeymoon Effect, the notion that one can be married with Hale Berry – the example was given ten years ago maybe, when she was the number one most attractive woman, as designated by People, or some other such magazine – and still, after two years, one is tempted to try and change, not that this always happen
To avoid that, you could try and read The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work by John Gottman, the ultimate expert on relationships, a psychologist who has an accuracy rate witch is about ninety percent https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... he knows which couples work, and which will not
March 10, 2026
Wow. This was phenomenal! Norman Maclean is a top American author. This story was beautifully written. The final paragraph is a great summary of what the book is about. It’s simply a book about fly fishing with themes that are found interwoven in life. Highly recommend.
*Read in Colorado (Copper Mountain) while looking at the snow capped mountains. Definitely elevated the experience.
*Read in Colorado (Copper Mountain) while looking at the snow capped mountains. Definitely elevated the experience.
March 16, 2026
this book is for boys
January 3, 2026
Foreword by Robert Redford:
A River Runs Through It:
A truly beautiful American story… the connection to nature and life and death is fantastically written. “Eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through it…. I am haunted by waters.” Great movie great book and I think one I’ll reach for every once in a while to read again… wouldn’t mind reading this in a quiet place by a river.
Logging and Pimping and “You’re pal, Jim”:
Honestly kinda weird. Cool tho.
USFS 1919:
A River Runs Through It:
A truly beautiful American story… the connection to nature and life and death is fantastically written. “Eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through it…. I am haunted by waters.” Great movie great book and I think one I’ll reach for every once in a while to read again… wouldn’t mind reading this in a quiet place by a river.
Logging and Pimping and “You’re pal, Jim”:
Honestly kinda weird. Cool tho.
USFS 1919:
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2026
Three great stories. Of course I read A river Runs through it in Robert Redford's voice.
February 19, 2026
A nice read. I connected most with the title story, despite not really being all that intrigued by fishing (though I appreciated the artistry of it here). Similarly, my lack of interest in forestry didn't aid my reading of the other two stories. Well written, just not of huge interest to me.
February 12, 2026
I remember watching the movie with my dad and sister. This book has that novella and it adds so much more to the story. The other stories included are also a hoot to if you ever worked in the outdoors.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews