Young Men and Fire
by Norman Maclean
from University Of Chicago Press
On August 5, 1949, lightning came crashing down in the vast spruce forest above Seeley Lake, Montana, and touched off a roaring blaze. As every Westerner knows, lightning means fire, but the fire that raged through Mann Gulch that day was huge--the sort that occurs only every few decades. A battery of paratrooper-firefighters, many of them fresh veterans of World War II, had been anticipating it, and even looking forward to the chance to fight a great fire. Before the day ended thirteen of those smokejumpers lay dead, their charred remains evidence that something had gone terribly wrong. Norman Maclean gives a thorough account of the incident in language not meant for the squeamish: "Burning to death on a mountainside is dying at least three times ... first, considerably ahead of the fire, you reach the verge of death in your boots and your legs; next, as you fail, you sink back in the region of strange gases and red and blue darts where there is no oxygen and here you die in your lungs; then you sink in prayer into the main fire that consumes." After August 1949, he notes, the Forest Service came to recognize that not all fires need to be fought and that fire benefits most forest ecosystems.
Young Men and Fire won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992.
"A magnificent drama of writing, a tragedy that pays tribute to the dead and offers rescue to the living.... Maclean's search for the truth, which becomes an exploration of his own mortality, is more compelling even than his journey into the heart of the fire. His description of the conflagration terrifies, but it is his battle with words, his effort to turn the story of the 13 men into tragedy that makes this book a classic."—from New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice, Best Books of 1992
"A treasure: part detective story, part western, part tragedy, part elegy and wholly eloquent ghost story in which the dead and the living join ranks cheerfully, if sometimes eerily, in a search for truth and the rest it brings."—Joseph Coates, Chicago Tribune
"An astonishing book. In compelling language, both homely and elegant, Young Men and Fire miraculously combines a fascinating primer on fires and firefighting, a powerful, breathtakingly real reconstruction of a tragedy, and a meditation on writing, grief and human character.... Maclean's last book will stir your heart and haunt your memory."—Timothy Foote, USA Today
"Beautiful.... A dark American idyll of which the language can be proud."—Robert M. Adams, The New York Review of Books
"Young Men and Fire is redolent of Melville. Just as the reader of Moby Dick comes to comprehend the monstrous entirety of the great white whale, so the reader of Young Men and Fire goes into the heart of the great red fire and comes out thoroughly informed. Don't hesitate to take the plunge."—Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World
"Young Men and Fire is a somber and poetic retelling of a tragic event. It is the pinnacle of smokejumping literature and a classic work of 20th-century nonfiction."—John Holkeboer, The Wall Street Journal
"Maclean is always with the brave young dead. . . . They could not have found a storyteller with a better claim to represent their honor. . . . A great book."—James R. Kincaid, New York Times Book Review
The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee
by Stewart Lee Allen
from Ballantine Books
In this captivating book, Stewart Lee Allen treks three-quarters of the way around the world on a caffeinated quest to answer these profound questions: Did the advent of coffee give birth to an enlightened western civilization? Is coffee, indeed, the substance that drives history? From the cliffhanging villages of Southern Yemen, where coffee beans were first cultivated eight hundred years ago, to a cavernous coffeehouse in Calcutta, the drinking spot for two of India’s three Nobel Prize winners . . . from Parisian salons and cafés where the French Revolution was born, to the roadside diners and chain restaurants of the good ol’ U.S.A., where something resembling brown water passes for coffee, Allen wittily proves that the world was wired long before the Internet. And those who deny the power of coffee (namely tea-drinkers) do so at their own peril.
Libby, Montana: Asbestos and the Deadly Silence of an American Corporation
by Andrea Peacock
from Johnson Books
A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn: The Last Great Battle of the American West
by Jim Donovan
from Tantor Media
Brimming with authentic detail and an unforgettable cast of characters---from Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse to Ulysses Grant and Custer himself---this is history with the sweep of a great novel.
Tough Trip Through Paradise, 1878-1879
by Andrew Garcia
from University of Idaho Press
Heart Earth
by Ivan Doig
from Harvest Books
Seasonal Disorder: Ranger Tales from Glacier National Park
by Pat Hagan
from Johnson Books
Claiming there's too much to explore and discover in Glacier National Park that you can't do it all in one season, Park Ranger Pat Hagan returns every summer, year after year. While some people suffer from Season Affective Disorder (SAD), Hagan says he suffers from "Seasonal Disorder" (SD), a type of depression that results during the remaining seasons-which are: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and Construction. Seasonal Disorder is about spending summer in paradise-for as long as you can make it last.
One Night In A Bad Inn: A True Story
by Christy Leskovar
from Pictorial Histories Publishing Co. Inc.
One Night In A Bad Inn is the fascinating true story of two colorful immigrant families who lived through extraordinary times. Rich in history and character, this remarkable saga follows a notorious matriarch, two daring fugitives, a heroic Irish doughboy, and a beautiful, inspiring lady across the parched plains of eastern Montana to a raucous mining town to the bloody battlefields of the First World War. It is a great read through which the reader learns some intriguing history through the lives of some very intriguing people.
Pretty-shield (Second Edition): Medicine Woman of the Crows (Second Edition)
by Frank B. Linderman
from Bison Books
A Great Day to Fight Fire: Mann Gulch, 1949
by Mark Matthews
from University of Oklahoma Press
Mann Gulch, Montana, 1949. Sixteen men ventured into hell to fight a raging wildfire; only three came out alive.
Not until 1999--the fiftieth anniversary of the fire--did people begin to talk openly about Mann Gulch. Matthews has garnered those thoughts to reveal how devastating the fire was to the firefighters' family members, coworkers, and friends. In retelling the story of Mann Gulch, he draws on the testimony of the three survivors--including never-before-published insights from the last living member of the team--and interviews with former smoke jumpers of that era. The result is a moment-by-moment, heart-stopping re-creation of events.
The Mann Gulch tragedy provoked the Forest Service to develop safety equipment and training programs, but fighting wildfires is still a perilous job.
Matthews' stirring account renews our respect for one of nature's primal forces. A heartbreakingly human story, it still haunts a firefighting community--and keeps today's firefighters forever on guard.
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