Norman Maclean

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...

Based on [the author']s own experiences as a young man, the book's two novellas and short story are set in the small towns and mountains of western Montana. It is a world populated with drunks, loggers, card sharks, and whores, but also one rich in the pleasures of fly-fishing, logging, cribbage, and family. By turns raunchy and elegiac, these superb tales express, in the author's own words, 'a little of the love I have for the earth as it goes by.'...

Based on the true story of two brothers, Norman and Paul Maclean, growing up in Montana. While Paul rebels against the stern nature of the boys' father Rev. Maclean, Norman pursues his dream of becoming a writer. However, despite the brothers' differences they are ultimately bonded by their mutual love of fly-fishing.

In the summer of 1919 young Mac joins the Forest Rangers who teaches him the meaning of hard work. He also clashes with the cook who turns out to have a secret talent other than just cooking and bonding with his dinner bell.