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traces Maclean’s revisions through four hand-written drafts and three typescripts, quoting extensive from previously unpublished material.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.”