A River Runs Through It

This article is about A River Runs Through It, the novella. For information on the film, see A River Runs Through It (film).

A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
First edition cover
Author	Norman Maclean
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Autobiographical, Novella
Publisher	University of Chicago Press
Publication date	May 1976
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	231 pages (hardback edition) 238 pages (paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 9780226500553 (hardback edition) ISBN 9780226500584 (paperback edition) ISBN 9780226500577 (paperback movie tie-in edition) ISBN 9780226500720 (hardback 25th anniversary edition) ISBN 9780226500669 (paperback 25th anniversary edition)
OCLC Number	1733412
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 19
LC Classification	PZ4.M16345 Ri PS3563.A317993

A River Runs Through It and Other Stories is a semi-autobiographical collection of three stories by author Norman Maclean (1902–1990) and published by the University of Chicago Press.

It contains:

• "A River Runs Through It"
• "Logging and Pimping and 'Your pal, Jim'"
• "USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky"

"A River Runs Through It"

"A River Runs Through It" concerns the Macleans, a Presbyterian family during early 20th century Montana whose opinions of life are filtered through their passion for fly fishing. The novella is presented from the point of view of older brother Norman who goes on one last fishing trip with his rowdy and troubled younger brother Paul in an attempt to help him get his life on track.^[1] After a brief introduction of his early life, most of the action takes places during the summer of 1937 and both Norman and Paul were in their early 30s of age.^[2]

The novella is noted for using detailed descriptions of fly fishing and nature to engage with a number of profound metaphysical questions.^[3] In a review for the Chicago Tribune, critic Alfred Kazin stated: "There are passages here of physical rapture in the presence of unsullied primitive America that are as beautiful as anything in Thoreau and Hemingway".^[4]

"Logging and Pimping and 'Your pal, Jim'"

"Logging and Pimping and 'Your pal, Jim'", is the story of Norman Maclean during the summer of 1928 (Maclean was 25), while in graduate school, of working as a logger for the Anaconda Company at a logging camp on the Blackfoot River. At the end of previous summer working at the camp (1927), he made an arrangement to work the next summer with the best logger of the camp, Jim Grierson.^[5]

Grierson would work the logging season at a camp, then find a town with a nice Carnegie Public Library, get a library card, find a whore, preferably from the South, and spend the off-season reading, drinking, and having a relationship with the prostitute.^[5]

"USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky"

"USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky", tells of part of the summer of Maclean's seventeenth year, 1919. He spent that summer, as he had the previous two, working for the United States Forest Service, this time at Elk Summit, Idaho, west of Blodgett Canyon. Approximately 34 miles (55 km), walking distance, almost due west-northwest of Hamilton, Montana, near White Sand Creek, and north of East Fork Moose Creek.^[6]

Working for the U.S. Forest Service, in a very remote part of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness portion of the Selway National Forest (now Clearwater National Forest), Maclean had to extinguish wildfires, build trails (with sledge hammer, chisel and dynamite), pack horses and mules, spend time alone on lookout duty at 7,424 feet (2,263 m) Grave Peak, and string telephone wire.^[6]

Elk Summit Work Center: 46°19′36″N 114°38′51″W / 46.32667°N 114.6475°W / 46.32667; -114.6475 (46.3265874, -114.6476053),^[7] elevation 5,748 feet (1,752 m). The work center is located at the junction of Horse Creek and Hoodoo Creek, north-northwest of Hoodoo Mountain and north-northeast of Hoodoo Lake.

Publishing history

This work, which was first released during 1976, has been published in several formats: as a collection of short stories, bearing a title starting with that of the novella, and as a stand-alone novella, usually as an art book with many photographs, or with many illustrations such as woodcuts. For much of its publishing history it was purposely not advertised, publicity depending on word of mouth and critical mention. Talk of the "Never advertised" book generated a considerable amount of publicity.

For an illustrated version there is still in print a hardcover edition issued in Chicago by the University of Chicago Press in 1989 with ISBN 0226500608.

The collection of short stories with the novella, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories is issued as a paperback by the University of Chicago Press in 2003 with ISBN 0226500667.

The small anthology contains two other stories, also partly autobiographical and which precede the events of River: "Logging and Pimping and 'Your pal, Jim'" and "USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky".

Pulitzer Prize

During 1977 the Pulitzer Prize committee for fiction (aka "fiction jury") recommended A River Runs Through It be awarded the prize for that year. The Pulitzer Prize Board, which has final say for awarding the prize, chose to override their recommendation and decided not to award for fiction that year.^[8]

Adaptations

Film: A River Runs Through It

Movie poster

Main article: A River Runs Through It (film)

In 1992, Robert Redford directed a film of the same name starring Brad Pitt, Craig Sheffer, Tom Skerritt, Brenda Blethyn, and Emily Lloyd. It was nominated for three Academy Awards and Philippe Rousselot won an Oscar for his cinematography.

The film fueled a rise in fly fishing's popularity, and while the fly fishing industry expanded in the five years following the film's release, many of these estimates were overstated.^[9]

Film: The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky

"USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky" was turned into a 1995 ABC television film: The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky, also known as Hole in the Sky. The film was directed by John Kent Harrison, with the adaptation written by Robert Wayne, and stars Sam Elliott, Jerry O'Connell, Ricky Jay, and Molly Parker. It was filmed in British Columbia, Canada.^[10][11]

References

External links

• Excerpt from "A River Runs Through It". - University of Chicago Press.

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