1st Edition
Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs through It” The Search for Beauty
Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It”: The Search for Beauty is the first book-length study of Norman Maclean or any of his works. Since the publication of “A River Runs Through It” in 1976, readers and critics have considered it to be one of the most carefully crafted stories in American Literature, both in terms of its structure and its style. The beauty of the story came with much hard work. This study traces Maclean’s revisions through four hand-written drafts and three typescripts, quoting extensive from previously unpublished material. The analysis of Maclean’s composition process lays the foundation for original and detailed discussions of other aspects of Maclean’s craft, such as his approach to genre and style. The study publishes for the first time the complete text of the notes that Maclean wrote after the first draft of “A River Runs Through It.”
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Note on Diplomatic Transcriptions, Citations from Maclean Papers, and Bibliographic Terms
Foreword
Jean Maclean Snyder
Preface
Chapter 1: Maclean’s Improbable Writing Career
Chapter 2: Evolution of the Beginning
The First Draft (MS1)
The Second Draft (MS2)
The Third Draft (MS3) and the Fourth Draft (MS4)
Revisions on the Typescripts
Conclusion
Chapter 3: No Clear Line between Fiction and Nonfiction
Shifting Time
Metanarration
Real People and Characters
Paul’s Death
Conclusion
Chapter 4: Variations of Time
Clock Time
Calendar Time
Historical Time
Life Span
Diurnal Time
Biblical Time
Geological Time
Eternity
All Things Merge into One
Conclusion
Chapter 5: The Problem of Genre
Genre and Emotions
Romance and Nostalgia: Norman and Paul’s Childhood
Ceremonial Rhetoric: The Montana Club
Paul and the Beautiful: The First Fishing Trip
A Little Tragedy: Paul in Jail
Comedy: Neal at Black Jack’s Bar
Mock-Tragedy: The Second Fishing Trip
Comedy: The Third Fishing Trip
Romance and the Sublime: The Last Fishing Trip
Tragedy: The Aftermath of Paul’s Death
Resolution: The Lyric and the Beautiful
Conclusion
Chapter 6: Style and Hidden Art
Reverend Maclean’s Commonplace Book
Storytelling around the Campfire
A Personal Poetic Language
Rhythm in Maclean’s Prose
Sound in Maclean’s Prose
Conclusion
Chapter 7: The Evolution of the End
Notes Version
A “Crude Version”
MS2B
Fair Copy
Revisions on Typescript Pages
Print Versions
Afterword
Works Cited
Appendix 1: Notes on Revising “Fly Fishing” (MS1)
Appendix 2: Typescripts, Fonts, and Typists
Fonts and Typists
Rejected Typescript Pages
History of Typescripts
Difficulties Dating the First Full Typescript
Anomalies with Typescripts
Appendix 3: Implications for Editing “A River Runs through It”
Appendix 4: Symmetry in “A River Runs through It”
Index
Biography
George H. Jensen is a Professor Emeritus with the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Arkansas Little Rock. His books include Personality and the Teaching of Composition (with John K. DiTiberio, 1989), Storytelling in Alcoholics Anonymous: A Rhetorical Analysis (2000), Identities Across Texts (2002), and The Ethics of Nonfiction: Rhetoric, Ethos, and Identity (2023). In addition these scholarly books, he has written Some of the Words Are Theirs: A Memoir of an Alcoholic Family (2009). He currently lives in Roanoke, Virginia.
Heidi Skurat Harris is an Associate Professor and the Graduate Coordinator with the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is co-author of Multimedia in the College Classroom: Improve Learning and Connect with Students in Online and Hybrid Classes. In addition to this book, she is the lead editor of the Bedford Bibliography of Research in Online Writing Instruction. She has also published creative nonfiction and research on professional development.
