Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River

John N. Maclean

Custom House

An expert’s report from the front lines where wildland fires keep getting hotter, bigger, and more dangerous to the men and women who fight them In 2002, more than seven million acres were burned at a fire-fighting cost of over a billion dollars. Are wilderness fires now a tragic and enduring feature of the American landscape? John N. Maclean, author of the acclaimed Fire on the Mountain, offers a view from the front lines, combining action-packed storytelling with moving insights about firefighters and informed analysis of firefighting strategy past and present. Beginning with a riveting account of the worst case of arson in wildfire history, the 1953 Rattlesnake Fire in Mendocino National Forest, which claimed the lives of fifteen firefighters, Maclean explains the mysterious dynamics of fire, and the courage and techniques required to combat it. One such mystery underlines the life- threatening 1999 Sadler Fire in Nevada when a line of flames suddenly blew up, trapping six firefighters mistakenly placed in harm’s way. For the final story Maclean returns to Mann Gulch, the site of his father’s classic Young Men and Fire, to interview the last survivor of the worst disaster in the history of smoke jumping. From it we understand why fatal fires burn for generations. Offering a prescient view of the inevitable conflict between people, property, and nature, Fire and Ashes presents a riveting and emotional story, one that in many ways John Maclean was destined to tell.

Fire and Ashes: On the Front Lines of American Wildfire

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Henry Holt and Co.

In the spirit of his father's beloved classic,&nbsp;A River Runs through It, comes John N. Maclean's true chronicle of his family and their bond with Montana's Blackfoot River--a profound and beautiful story about the power of place to bind generations, past and present "Maclean's Hemingway-esque prose is as clear as a mountain stream, flowing with a poetic cadence." --Booklist "The trout completed its curve in an undulating, revelatory sequence. A greenish speckled back and a flash of scarlet on silver along its side marked it as a rainbow. One slow beat, set the hook ... in those first seconds I felt a connection to a fish of great size and power."&nbsp; So begins John N. Maclean's remarkable memoir of his family's century-long love affair with Montana's majestic&nbsp;Blackfoot River, which his father, Norman Maclean, made legendary. Now himself past the age that his father published his bestselling novella, Maclean returns annually to the simple family cabin that his grandfather built by hand, still in search of the fish of a lifetime. When he hooks it at last, decades of longing promise to be fulfilled, inspiring John, reporter and author, to finally write the story he was born to tell.&nbsp; A book that will resonate with everyone who feels deeply rooted to a place,&nbsp;Home Waters&nbsp;is chronicle of a family who claimed a river, from one generation to the next, of how this family came of age in the 20th century and later as they scattered across the country, faced tragedy and success, yet were always drawn back to the waters that bound them together. Here are the true stories behind the beloved characters fictionalized in&nbsp;A River Runs Through It,&nbsp;including&nbsp;the Reverend Maclean, the patriarch who introduced the family to fishing; Norman, who balanced a life divided between literature and the tug of the rugged West; and tragic yet luminous Paul (played by Brad Pitt in Robert Redford's film adaptation), whose mysterious death has haunted the family and led John to investigate his uncle's murder and reveal new details in these pages. A universal story about the power of place to shape families, and a celebration of the art of fishing, Maclean's memoir beautifully portrays the inextricable ways our personal histories are linked to the places we come from--our home waters.&nbsp;

HarperCollins B and Blackstone Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by John N. Maclean. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by John N. Maclean