Just as Norman Maclean writes at the end of 'A River Runs through It' that he is 'haunted by waters,' so have readers been haunted by his novella. A retired English professor who began writing fiction at the age of 70, Maclean produced what is now recognized as one of the classic American stories of the twentieth century. Originally published in 1976, 'A River Runs through It and Other Stories' now celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, marked by this new edition that includes a foreword by Annie Proulx. By turns raunchy, poignant, caustic, and elegiac, these are superb tales which express, in Maclean's own words, 'a little of the love I have for the earth as it goes by,' a love shared by millions of readers. As Proulx writes in her foreword to this new edition, 'In 1990 Norman Maclean died in body, but for hundreds of thousands of readers he will live as long as fish swim and books are made.'

Two novellas and one short story, based on the author's own experiences, center on a young man's discovery of life and art in the woods of western Montana.

Norman Maclean (1902-1990), woodsman, scholar, teacher, and storyteller, grew up in the Western Rocky Mountains of Montana and worked for many years in logging camps and for the United States Forestry Service before beginning his academic career. He was the William Rainey Harper Professor of English at the University of Chicago until 1973.