Norman Maclean (1902 90), woodsman, scholar, teacher, and storyteller, grew up in and around Missoula, 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.
"Young Men and Fire is a somber and poetic retelling of a tragic
event. It is the pinnacle of smokejumping literature and a classic
work of twentieth-century nonfiction."--John Holkeboer "Wall Street
Journal"
"Young Men and Fire is redolent of Melville. Just as the reader of
Moby-Dick comes to comprehend the monstrous entirety of the great
white whale, so the reader of Young Men and Fire goes into the
heart of the great red fire and comes out thoroughly informed.
Don't hesitate to take the plunge."--Dennis Drabelle "Washington
Post"
"An astonishing book. In compelling language, both homely and
elegant, Young Men and Fire miraculously combines a fascinating
primer on fires and firefighting, a powerful, breathtakingly real
reconstruction of a tragedy, and a meditation on writing, grief,
and human character. . . . Maclean's last book will stir your heart
and haunt your memory."--Timothy Foote "USA Today"
"Before Norman Maclean was a writer and professor, he fought fires
for the Forest Service. When he was a teenager, he nearly died in a
Montana wildfire. 'It came so close it sounded as if it were
cracking bones, and mine were the only bones around, ' he writes.
It's through that memory of terror, thirst, and exhaustion that
Maclean begins his book Young Men and Fire. Thirteen
'smokejumpers'--firefighters who parachute into the
wilderness--died in the 1949 Mann Gulch fire. With an almost
obsessive attention to detail, Maclean reconstructs their story
using the skill and sensitivity he honed as a novelist."--Daniel A.
Gross "Longreads"
Ask a Question About this Product More... |