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Young Men and Fire: Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition Kindle Edition
A devastating and lyrical work of nonfiction, Young Men and Fire describes the events of August 5, 1949, when a crew of fifteen of the US Forest Service’s elite airborne firefighters, the Smokejumpers, stepped into the sky above a remote forest fire in the Montana wilderness. Two hours after their jump, all but three of the men were dead or mortally burned. Haunted by these deaths for forty years, Norman Maclean puts together the scattered pieces of the Mann Gulch tragedy in this extraordinary book.
Alongside Maclean’s now-canonical A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Young Men and Fire is recognized today as a classic of the American West. This edition of Maclean’s later triumph—the last book he would write—includes a powerful new foreword by Timothy Egan, author of The Big Burn and The Worst Hard Time. As moving and profound as when it was first published, Young Men and Fire honors the literary legacy of a man who gave voice to an essential corner of the American soul.
“A moving account of humanity, nature, and the perseverance of the human spirit.” —Library Journal
“Haunting.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Engrossing.” —Publishers Weekly
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThe University of Chicago Press
- Publication dateMay 1, 2017
- File size9374 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Young Men and Fire
By Norman MacleanThe University of Chicago Press
Copyright © 1992 The University of ChicagoAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-47545-5
Contents
Foreword by Timothy Egan,Publisher's Note,
Black Ghost,
Young Men and Fire,
PART ONE,
PART TWO,
PART THREE,
Maps of Gates of the Mountains and Western Montana,
A gallery of photographs,
CHAPTER 1
In 1949 the Smokejumpers were not far from their origins as parachute jumpers turned stunt performers dropping from the wings of planes at county fairs just for the hell of it plus a few dollars, less hospital expenses. By this time they were also sure they were the best firefighters in the United States Forest Service, and although by now they were very good, especially against certain kinds of fires, they should have stopped to realize that they were newcomers in this ancient business of fighting forest fires. It was 1940 when the first parachute jump on a forest fire was made and a year later that the Smokejumpers were organized, so only for nine years had there been a profession with the aim of taking on at the same time three of the four elements of the universe — air, earth, and fire — and in a simple continuous act dropping out of the sky and landing in a treetop or on the face of a cliff in order to make good their boast of digging a trench around every fire they landed on by ten o'clock the next morning. In 1949 the Smokejumpers were still so young that they referred affectionately to all fires they jumped on as "ten o'clock fires," as if they already had them under control before they jumped. They were still so young they hadn't learned to count the odds and to sense they might owe the universe a tragedy.
It is true, though, that no technical advance was to influence the Forest Service's methods of spotting and fighting wildfires as much as the airplane, which arrived early in the century about the same time as the Forest Service (1905). Two world wars hastened the union between airplanes and firefighting. By 1917 chief forester Henry S. Graves was conferring with the chief of the Army Air Corps about the possibility of army planes flying patrol missions over western forests. By 1925 the Forest Service itself started using planes from which fires could be spotted more quickly and thoroughly than from scattered lookouts. By 1929 planes were dropping supplies to firefighters, and it seemed that soon firefighters themselves would be dropped, but psychological difficulties and difficulties with equipment held back the development of parachute jumping on wildfires. It was only after several years of experimenting and training that the first parachute jump on a forest fire was made, one of the two jumpers being Earl Cooley, who was to be the spotter on the C-47 that carried the Smokejumpers to the Mann Gulch fire and, as spotter, tapped each jumper on the left calf as the signal to step into the sky over Mann Gulch.
The chief psychological roadblock holding up the acceptance of parachute jumping by the government and the public itself was the belief that most parachute jumpers were at least a little bit nuts and the high probability that a few of them were. In 1935, Evan Kelley, of the Forest Service's Region One (with headquarters in Missoula, Montana, where in a few years one of the biggest Smokejumper bases was to be established), rejected the possibility of dropping men on fires from parachutes by saying: "The best information I can get from experienced fliers is that all parachute jumpers are more or less crazy — just a little bit unbalanced, otherwise they wouldn't be engaged in such a hazardous undertaking." There is no doubt that among those most visibly touched with the Icarus complex were jumpers off wings of planes at county fairs or stuntmen doing the same kind of work for movies. Only a year before Kelley had made his psychological analysis of parachute jumpers, Frank Derry, a stuntman in California and short of cash, got the idea of jumping from a plane in a parachute, dressed as Santa Claus. He made a perfect landing, pleased the local Los Angeles merchants, quit factory work for good, joined a flying circus barnstorming the West, and became one of the nine original Forest Service Smokejumpers, one of the Forest Service's finest jump instructors, and one of its best riggers, making important improvements in both the parachute and the jump suit.
Most people have a touch of the Icarus complex and, like Smokejumpers, wish to appear on earth from the sky. In my home town of Missoula, Montana, older brothers all over town trained their younger brothers to jump from garage roofs, using gunnysacks for parachutes. The older brothers argued that the younger brothers should do the jumping because, being smaller, they would take longer to reach the ground and so give their gunnysacks more time to open and soften the landing. From the start, Smokejumpers had to have a lot of what we have a little of, and one way all men are born equal is in being born at least a little bit crazy, some being more equal than others. A number of these latter were needed to get the Smokejumpers started, and a certain number more have always been needed to keep it going.
Fortunately, many of those powered by the Icarus complex, unlike Icarus, are gifted mechanically in odd ways and have long worked on problems connected with landing safely. Even the most sublime of oddballs, Leonardo da Vinci, had studied the problem of safely landing men on earth from the sky. But it wasn't until 1783 that the French physicist Louis-Sébastien Lenormand made the first successful parachute jump from a tower, and even in 1930 the parachute had many shortcomings as a means of aerial transport, some of which were eliminated or reduced by none other than Frank Derry, the Santa Claus parachute jumper who was also gifted mechanically. One of the parachute's greatest shortcomings as aerial transport had been that, being a parabolic object, it drops with a bell-like motion. As it descends, air is forced up into it and, since there are no openings in the parachute through which the air can escape, it rocks up on one side until the surplus air is released, then swings to the other side until it tips out the excess air it has accumulated on its return trip. As a result, before the parachute could be a reasonably safe means of getting from the sky to the earth, the rocking had to be taken out of its flight and some means of steering it had to be devised so Smokejumpers and their supplies could be dropped on a designated spot near a fire instead of scattered all over the nearby mountains.
The parachute developed by Frank Derry became the standard Smokejumpers' parachute for many years and is the parachute used by the crew that dropped on the Mann Gulch fire. The rocking motion had been reduced by three openings through which air could be released — an opening in the top and two slots on opposite sides. On the outside of the chute attached to the slots were "tails," pieces of nylon that acted as rudders to guide the flow of air coming through the slots, and to them guide lines were attached so that the direction of the flight was ultimately determined by the jumper. Not a highly safe and sensitive piece of machinery, but better than Icarus had. It had a speed of seven or eight knots, and, as soon as a jumper could, he turned his face to the wind and looked over his shoulder to see, among other things, that he didn't smash into a cliff.
Frank Derry, his two brothers, and others of the early Smokejumpers not only greatly improved the parachute but soon were developing a safer jump suit, one designed especially for jumping in mountainous timber country — football helmet with heavy wire-mesh face mask, felt-lined suit, and "shock absorbers" such as ankle braces, athletic supporters, back and abdominal braces, and heavy logger boots (the White logger boots from Spokane, Washington, the best). Frank Derry's two brothers were helpful, but staying put was not part of their calling and they weren't long with the Smokejumpers. Frank, however, lasted much longer, then bought a bar nearby and became his own best customer.
So far it has all been the jump in smoke jumping and nothing about the smoke or fire at the end. In 1949 a fair number of old-timers in the Forest Service still believed that God means there to be only one honest way to get to a forest fire and that is to walk your guts out. To these old-timers the Smokejumpers were from a circus sideshow, although in fact they were already on their way to becoming the best firefighting outfit in the Forest Service.
Basic movements in the history of the Forest Service had helped put the Smokejumpers by 1949 on their way to being the best. The United States Forest Service was officially established in 1905 by President Theodore Roosevelt and Governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania, eastern outdoorsmen who knew and loved the earth in its wondrous ways when left to itself and given a chance. Their policy of acquiring and protecting some of the earth's most beautiful remaining parts became the Forest Service's primary purpose. Then came 1910, the most disastrous fire year on record. In western Montana and Idaho 3 million acres were left behind as charred trees and ashes that rose when you walked by, then blew away when you passed. This transformation occurred largely in two days, August 20 and 21, when thousands of people thought the world was coming to an end, and for eighty-seven people it did.
I remember these two days very well. My family was on summer vacation, camped in tents on an island between forks of the Bitterroot River. The elders in my father's church had become alarmed and had come in a wagon to rescue us. A team of the elders waded out to our island, crossed hands, and in this cradle carried my mother back to the wagon. My father and I followed, my father holding me with one hand and his fishing rod with the other and I also holding my fishing rod with my other hand. It was frightening, as what seemed to be great flakes of white snow were swirling to the ground in the heat and darkness of high noon. I was seven years old and might have cried for our tent, which we had to leave behind, except I thought my mother and our two rods would make it to the wagon.
Since 1910, much of the history of the Forest Service can be translated into a succession of efforts to get firefighters on fires as soon as possible — the sooner, the smaller the fire. If a campfire left burning can be caught soon enough, a man with a shovel can bury it. If the fire is a lightning fire burning in a dead tree, a man will need an ax to drop the burning tree and will still need the shovel to dig the shallow trench into which he is going to drop and bury it. If two Smokejumpers had reached the Mann Gulch fire the afternoon it started, they would at least have kept it under control until a larger crew arrived. Before the Mann Gulch fire was finally put under control five days later, there were 450 men on it and they didn't have as much to do with stopping it as did cliffs and rock slides.
So history went from trails and walking and pack mules to roads and trucks up every gulch to four-wheel drives where there weren't any roads to planes and now to helicopters, which can go about anywhere and do anything when they get there or on the way. The Smokejumpers are a large part of this history. Graphs prove it.
The two graphs reproduced in this chapter are a part of statistical studies by Charles P. Kern, fire coordinator of the Forest Service's Region One, and assistant fire coordinator Ronald Hendrickson of the variations in number and size of forest fires in Region One from 1930 to 1975. The first graph, "Total Number of Fires per Year," shows just what an old-time woodsman who has long fought fires would expect — that there has been no significant trend either up or down in the number of wildfires during those forty-five years. There has been a bad fire year now and then, as in the late thirties and early sixties, and there probably always will be now and then, let's hope never as bad as 1910, but on a statistical curve lightning seems to be a fairly fixed feature of the universe, as does the number of people who are careless with campfires. The result is no discernible downtrend in the number of wildfires.
The graph entitled "Number of Fires Rated Class C and Larger" tells a very different story and shows clearly the coming and continuing presence of the Smokejumpers. The number of fires rated Class C (ten to ninety-nine acres) and larger in Region One, figured as a percentage of the total fires per year, plunged sharply as the Smokejumpers became an organization in the early 1940s, then made its last sharp rise to almost 9 percent with the coming of World War II when the Smokejumpers became a depleted operation, but plunged just as precipitously when the war was over and veterans filled up the crews of Smokejumpers, who again were stopping fires before they spread far. Since 1945 there has been no year when 5 percent of the fires became Class C or larger — thirty years is surely a trend, no doubt one that cannot be ascribed solely to the Smokejumpers but one that has to be a great tribute to them.
Although this trend has to be a tribute in part to the fixed theory of doing everything possible between heaven and earth to get firefighters on a fire as fast as possible, what also makes a world of difference is the kind of men who get there first. The requirements used in selecting the first crews of Smokejumpers give a rough profile of the kind of men the Forest Service thought were needed to join sky with fire, and these same requirements should have given the jumpers some idea of their life expectancy. They had to be between twenty-one and twenty-five, in perfect health, not married, and holding no job in the Forest Service as important as ranger. So basically they had to be young, tough, and in one way or another from the back country. And the Forest Service carried no insurance on them.
It is not hard to imagine why the Smokejumpers from the start have had several visible bloodlines. With their two major activities — to jump from the sky and fight fire when they land — they have always drawn professional adventurers. The three Derry brothers are good examples. They were important in giving shape and substance to the early history of the Smokejumpers, and, from the nature of things, the Smokejumpers will probably always draw their quota of adventurers. On weekends, they are likely to rent a Cessna 180 and go jumping just for the hell of it; they try to make big money in the summer and some go to Honolulu and shack up for the winter, at night passing themselves off as natives to multinational female tourists or even to female natives. Others spend the winters as ski instructors in Colorado or Utah or Montana, colder work in the day but probably not at night.
One might assume that most Smokejumpers come from the woods and after they are finished as jumpers join up for good with the United States Forest Service or some state agency supervising public lands or some private logging company — the Smokejumper base in Missoula is a magnet for tough young guys pointed toward the woods for life. Besides being the headquarters for Region One of the Forest Service, Missoula is also the home of the University of Montana, which has a powerful school of forestry. Any summer a highly select number of forestry school students are Smokejumpers — of the thirteen firefighters who died in Mann Gulch, five were forestry students at the University of Montana and two were forestry students at the University of Minnesota. Two of the three survivors had just finished high school and were also University of Montana students. Select, very good students, trained in the woods.
At best, though, there is very little chance of a longtime future in smoke jumping. To start with, you are through jumping at forty, and for those who think of lasting that long there are only a few openings ahead, administrative or maintenance. But one thing that remains with Smokejumpers, no matter where they ultimately land, is the sense of being highly select for life and of belonging for life to a highly select outfit, somewhat like the Marines, who know what they are talking about when they speak of themselves as the proud and the few. Although many Smokejumpers never see each other after they leave the outfit, they remain members of a kind of fraternal organization that also has some dim ties seemingly with religion. Just being a first-class woodsman admits you almost anywhere into an international fraternity of sorts, and although you will meet only a few of your worldwide brotherhood, you will recognize any one of them when you see him swing an ax. Going a little up the fraternal ladder is being admitted to the Forest Service, and that is like belonging to the Masons or the Knights of Columbus; making the next step is becoming a Smokejumper, and that is like being a Shriner or Knight Templar. This kind of talk is going too far but not altogether in the wrong direction. It is very important to a lot of people to make unmistakably clear to themselves and to the universe that they love the universe but are not intimidated by it and will not be shaken by it, no matter what it has in store. Moreover, they demand something from themselves early in life that can be taken ever after as a demonstration of this abiding feeling.
(Continues...)Excerpted from Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean. Copyright © 1992 The University of Chicago. Excerpted by permission of The University of Chicago Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
Review
“A magnificent drama of writing, a tragedy that pays tribute to the dead and offers rescue to the living. . . . Maclean’s search for the truth, which becomes an exploration of his own mortality, is more compelling even than his journey into the heart of the fire. . . . A classic.” ― New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice as one of the Best Books of 1992
“Beautiful. . . . A dark American idyll of which the language can be proud.” -- Robert M. Adams ― New York Review of Books
“Maclean is always with the brave young dead. . . . They could not have found a storyteller with a better claim to represent their honor. . . . A great book.” -- James R. Kincaid ― New York Times Book Review
“A treasure: part detective story, part western, part tragedy, part elegy and wholly eloquent ghost story in which the dead and the living join ranks cheerfully, if sometimes eerily, in a search for truth and the rest it brings.” -- Joseph Coates ― Chicago Tribune
“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
“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
“A haunting work.” -- Joseph Rago ― Wall Street Journal
“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
"The bravery of an unsung profession; this is a tale of natural disaster, adventure, and male camaraderie." ― Gear Patrol
"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 --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From AudioFile
From Library Journal
- Daniel Liestman, Seattle Pacific Univ.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
About the Author
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Amazon.com Review
From the Back Cover
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Product details
- ASIN : B06X9LG4YJ
- Publisher : The University of Chicago Press; Illustrated edition (May 1, 2017)
- Publication date : May 1, 2017
- Language : English
- File size : 9374 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 332 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #179,372 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #41 in Natural Disasters (Kindle Store)
- #115 in General Technology & Reference
- #188 in Biographies & Memoirs of Authors
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Norman Maclean grew up in and around Missoula, Montana, where he worked in logging camps and for the U.S. Forest Service. He attended Dartmouth College and taught English for 46 years at the University of Chicago.
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Customers find the book engaging and enjoyable to read. They describe the story as compelling and powerful, with a beautiful narrative that provides insight into nature. The book provides good information about the 1940's tragedy, and readers appreciate the thorough research. However, opinions differ on the writing quality - some find it beautifully written and masterful, while others consider it weirdly written or poorly written. There are mixed feelings about the emotional content - some find it touching and soulful, while others feel it is agonizing and painful.
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Customers enjoy the book's readability. They find it fascinating and memorable, with a depth of meaning few books have. The prose is enjoyable to read and recreates the life of these brave young men.
"...It is a story of youth and courage, of the woods and woodsmen, of tragic loss and the suffering of loved ones. Norman writes: "..." Read more
"...Young Men & Fire" is compelling reading precisely because MacLean asserts his point of view and takes us inside his thought process, neatly..." Read more
"...book is too long, especially in its first part, Maclean's prose is a pleasure to read. His was a distinctive voice indeed...." Read more
"What else to say but that this is the BEST book I've ever read, and I've read a good many great, classic and wonderful books in my almost 70 years..." Read more
Customers enjoy the compelling story and beautiful prose. They describe it as a powerful narrative journalism that explores nature's tragic events through the eyes of brave men. Many find it an interesting account of an early mass casualty fire event, with drama and heroic elements.
"...It is a story of youth and courage, of the woods and woodsmen, of tragic loss and the suffering of loved ones. Norman writes: "..." Read more
"...claimed the lives of 13 firefighters in 1949, is a powerful piece of narrative journalism. But MacLean warps the form--fearlessly...." Read more
"...Maclean's earlier _A River Runs Through It_, which is as beautifully crafted a story as any I have read. His approach here is similar...." Read more
"...is brilliantly written with an eye to compassion and truth, a compilation of history, observation, research, investigation and critical thinking,..." Read more
Customers find the book provides good information about a tragic 1940s event. They appreciate the thorough research and truthful portrayal of the events. The book is engaging and hard to put down, providing an insightful learning experience about the tragedy.
"...It is a mystery story, an investigative story, a story of an older man trying to discovery and understand something from long ago, something deeply..." Read more
"...and poetic thoughts to the story often...which is sometimes beautifully poignant but other times fairly jarring as it comes in the midst of..." Read more
"...Gulch, or other locales devastated by wild fires, this book resonates with absolute truth...." Read more
"...and truth, a compilation of history, observation, research, investigation and critical thinking, with a soothing dose of respect and admiration not..." Read more
Customers have different views on the writing quality. Some find it beautiful and masterful, with simple words that convey depth. Others feel the book is weirdly written and not an easy read.
"...I am there with Norman heart and soul. He is a fine writer, and it was a pleasure to be able to travel along with him, though the answers we sought..." Read more
"...Also, he likes to wax poetic (literally) quite a bit about the nature of life and death, fire, youth, and old age (his own)...." Read more
"...But this could have been a really great story, instead of a badly written report by a kind of intense old tree hugger more focused on his own..." Read more
"...and critical thinking, with a soothing dose of respect and admiration not only for those 13 young Smokejumpers who lost their race with a wildfire..." Read more
Customers have different views on the emotional content of the book. Some find it touching and comforting, while others feel it's painful, disturbing, and repetitive.
"...The prose used by the late, great Norman Maclean is wonderfully touching and deeply soulful, his words are like a massage to my heart and mind as I..." Read more
"...It's written in an old school style & it was a little hard to get into, lots of good information about this 1940's tragedy but it was very..." Read more
"...Strangely comforting." Read more
"...when Maclean died, and there are points when the narrative becomes repetitive and loose...." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2012The story of the Mann Gulch fire is a story of adventurous young men and their collision with startling tragedy. It is a mystery story, an investigative story, a story of an older man trying to discovery and understand something from long ago, something deeply painful, something most people wanted to forget. It is a story of youth and courage, of the woods and woodsmen, of tragic loss and the suffering of loved ones.
Norman writes:
"Those who knew something about the woods or about nature should soon have perceived an alarming gap between the almost sole purpose, clear but narrow, of the early Smokejumpers and the reality they were sure to confront, reality almost anywhere having inherent in it the principle that little things suddenly and literally can become big as hell, the ordinary can suddenly become monstrous, and the upgulch breeze suddenly can turn to murder. Since this principle comes about as close to being universal as a principle can, you might have thought someone in the early history and training of the Smokejumpers would have realized that something like the Mann Gulch fire would happen before long. But no one seems to have sensed this first principle because of a second principle inherent in the nature of man--namely, that generally a first principle can't be seen until after it has been written up as a tragedy and becomes a second principle."
Staying at his family's lake cabin in Montana during the summer break, Norman was within twenty miles at the time of the fire. A woodsmen himself who almost was caught in the Fish Creek fire when working for the Forest Service as a young man, he always felt a connection to the events that happened on Mann Gulch that hot August day. Upon his retirement, he took upon himself the job of discovering the secrets known only to those that perished in the fire. He did so to honor those that died there, to discover and share with them in their lives, their suffering and their tragedy, and in so doing shed light upon tragedy itself, a thing which in one way or another will ultimately become a part of all of our lives.
Norman Maclean is a fine man to head into the woods with. He has a dry sense of humor that is never lost, even when he is suffering through the heat of Mann Gulch in August. Of the many men we meet in our journey, I loved the character of Robert Sallee. Tough young kid and a very straightforward man. He led a very productive life, and resides in retirement today in Spokane Washington. Another favorite is Wag Dodge, the foreman, who kept his cool in the hottest of pressures, and discovered a way out, if only they would follow him to it. The responsibility of keeping those men safe weighed heavy upon him. After the fire, he stayed two more days, helping to identify the lost firefighters and remove their bodies. Dodge could never bring himself to jump again. He went up three more times, but could not go out through the door and into the unknown. His was a particularly tragic story.
Norman Maclean never finished Young Men and Fire. Perhaps the journey of self discovery had not reached its end by the time of his death. Perhaps the threads he attempted to weave together could not quite fit. Perhaps he tired before the fire and its tragedy, and was himself overtaken by it all. In the end it was left for his son, John Maclean, to finish the project, which he did along with the help of a number of the editors from the University of Chicago Press.
"It is clear to me now that the universe in its truculence doesn't permit itself to be that well known."
- Norman Maclean
Norman's Young Men and Fire is much more than a story of a deadly forest fire. It is a story of life and tragedy. I am there with Norman heart and soul. He is a fine writer, and it was a pleasure to be able to travel along with him, though the answers we sought were elusive, and sometimes not for us to find.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2011It is a great thing that this book has been given to the world, considering how much of his life and energy Norman Maclean devoted to it. A shame, also, that he wasn't able to finish it himself. I wonder how much additional polish and editing he would have done to make it a spectacular read.
In "Young Men and Fire" Maclean takes the reader to the disastrous Mann Gulch blowup and examines it through testimony of the survivors, all of the photographs and documents that exist, personal interviews and visits to the scene, and modern computer analysis of fire behavior. Along the way he also looks at the ramifications of the events from grief and lawsuits to it's importance in the history of the forest service and the development of fire science as a whole. The book is *also* his personal story...a quest to gather all of the information, expose it with as much truth and perspective as possible, and finally bring closure to questions and controversy that were never completely dealt with.
Accomplishing all of this is a lot to do in one work, of course, especially when it's unfolding simultaneously. Because of this it can seem like Maclean is jumping around and repeating himself a lot. Also, he likes to wax poetic (literally) quite a bit about the nature of life and death, fire, youth, and old age (his own). He links these and poetic thoughts to the story often...which is sometimes beautifully poignant but other times fairly jarring as it comes in the midst of technical examination of facts and theories. The last chapter, for example, as he tries to sum up everything into something meaningful for all of humanity...I found pretty unreadable for about 5 pages. It was just over the top with soliloquies and poetic ramblings. But then it returns in clarity and again offers well formed thoughts that romanticize all of it quite nicely.
Another challenge I encountered (which seems rather trivial but was quite annoying) is that for much of the book I had a hard time picturing what Mann Gulch and the physical locations where the fire and the deaths occurred looked like. The terms used may be familiar to Maclean and those he referred to as "experienced woodsmen" but for me they were obscure. Ridge, reef, sidehill, gulch, fingergulch, canyon, mouth of the gulch, upgulch, upslope, crevice, saddle. Coming across the maps and photographs included helped some, but unfortunately they were poorly reproduced in the Kindle version I purchased. As Maclean attempted to recreate the events with timelines, yardage, speed, and space he included references to points on the map, for example. Too bad for me these were impossible to see on the poor quality jpegs in my version. It's a shame the publisher didn't do a better job on the ebook. Formatting errors were also found in abundance.
If I were unbiased I would have to rate the book on it's own 3/5 stars. It's very hard to be unbiased, though, after going along on the journey with him and knowing it is essentially 15+ years of his hard work and possibly his greatest passion. All in all it definitely accomplishes what it attempts to do and I imagine the need to rework and polish the book into something more digestible (publishable) is what prevented him from doing so. I think if he had had time and ability it could have been polished to an easy 4-5 star creation...a classic, a bestseller. It has the content and legworth to deserve that, I think. Because of this I'm rating it 4 stars.
After reading it I will never see some things the same. A fire danger rating, for example. A short news blurb that firefighters got a grass fire in steep terrain contained. The very real risk of wildland fires and amazing power of nature. The fascinating nature of fire science and computer modeling. The terror of being unable to outrun a 30-40 foot wall of flame. Beyond the occasional tedium I am glad I read this book and would highly recommend it.
Top reviews from other countries
- LLB by the lakeReviewed in Canada on December 17, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good historical review
I have purchased two previous copies but loaned them out and so decided to get another and never let it out of my sight 😊
- Kalojan ChristowReviewed in Germany on January 2, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars The beginning of a new era for smokejumpers.
I picked up this book after reading The Premonition by M.Lewis. Young Men and Fire is quoted there for the unbelievable survival of a smokejumper by the name of Dodge, during the Mann Gulch forest fire. I was curious to learn more about this technique pioneered by Dodge and ended up reading the book. I think given I had no clue about forest fires, a topic I never thought I would be necessarily interested in, I truly enjoyed McMillan’s writing. He is a gifted storyteller but also an outstanding investigator. The book is well researched and most importantly objective. I must say I would have probably enjoyed it better with a little less of the research presented in the final 80 pages, which were heavily focused on the mathematical modeling of forest fires.
- RickReviewed in Australia on February 4, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Deep and insightful exploration of manhood
Shows you a side of being a man which is absent from today's advice on manhood. Do yourself a favour and discover what you could be.
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KYReviewed in Japan on February 3, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars 期待通り
映画「オンリー・ザ・ブレイブ」を見て興味がわき、購入しました。期待通りの素晴らしい本です。
- Mr. Martin R. BrowneReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2013
5.0 out of 5 stars Young Men & Fire, Norman Maclean.
I bought this when I was researching on the web for background to a song by James Keelaghan, Canadian singer/songwriter. called "Cold Missouri Waters". It is about the death of 13 young parachutist firefighters in 1949 when a forest fire jumped a canyon and cut off their retreat. Of the two survivors of the crew the song focuses on the story as told by the crewboss, Dodge and the Book expands on Dodge's part in his survival. The book is factual and a chronological account of the tragedy. Interesting facts and a well-crafted narration.