The Art of the Angle: An Evening with Author John N. Maclean

The Art of the Angle: An Evening with Author John N. Maclean

Join us for a cocktail reception and discussion with award-winning journalist and author John N. Maclean. John N. is the son of author Norman Maclean who took the fly fishing world by storm in 1976 with his book A River Runs Through It. The discussion will complement the new Library exhibition, The Art of the Angle, a collection of original wood engravings used to illustrate three books on a fly-fishing theme by Norman Maclean, his son John N., and Ernest Hemingway. Maclean will introduce the engravings from A River Runs Through It, Home Waters, and Big Two-hearted River: The Centennial Edition, then discuss their creation and the links among them. 

Barry Moser, perhaps the foremost wood engraver in the world, created a special edition for his Pennyroyal Press of A River Runs through It using his original wood engravings. The University of Chicago Press, the book’s original publisher, then produced its own edition using Moser’s artwork, which is part of the exhibition.

When Mariner Classics published John N. Maclean’s memoir, Home Waters, the house engaged Wesley W. Bates to create wood engravings to keep the tradition alive. Then when Maclean contributed a foreword to the Hemingway fishing classic, “Big Two-Hearted River,” for the same publisher, yet another artist, Chris Wormell, made wood engravings for that work.

Seen together, the wood engravings unite as well as enhance landmark texts in the literature of American fly-fishing.

The evening will end with a book sale and signing.

John N. Maclean spent thirty years at the Chicago Tribune, most of that time as a Washington correspondent. After leaving the Tribune, Maclean wrote five nonfiction books about wildland fire that are considered a staple of fire literature as well as training material for firefighters. Maclean is the son of Norman Maclean, author of A River Runs Through It. The younger Maclean, an avid fly fisherman, lives in Washington, D.C., and at a family cabin in Montana.

PROGRAM TIMELINE

5–5:45pm| Members-only* Reception. Explore the Library Exhibition Art of the Angle comprised of original illustrations from A River Runs Through It, Home Waters, and Big Two-hearted River: The Centennial Edition by Ernest Hemingway (prologue by John N. Maclean).

5–5:45pm | Non-Members can explore the Museum & Campus

5:45–7pm | Discussion, Q&A, Book Signing

Reviews for Home Waters...

“You do not have to be a devout angler or have previously read A River Runs Through It to enjoy Home Waters. The book is a testament to the power of place and the love that binds us, throughout the generations. Home Waters is a keeper.”  

—FLATHEAD BEACON

“marvelous… graceful and compelling… this is a great book.”

—CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“Throughout ‘Home Waters,’ Maclean shows that he’s a real writer. But he’s also a real reporter with a long career for the Chicago Tribune.”

—CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

“Maclean’s writing is often intimate. Family lore, told and retold, can be a fuzzy thing, but some memories about his father, like their first time fishing together, remained spectacularly vivid and personal.”

—THE WASHINGTON POST

“The prose in Home Waters, which is often transporting, flows with a shadow-cast grace. What’s more, John Maclean generously welcomes the reader into his family… The best word I can think of to describe Home Waters also happens to be the Maclean’s family word: beautiful.”

—FIELD & STREAM

“Home Waters is wherever we, as anglers, outdoorsmen and women, came to love and learn about place, play, and the people we call family or close friends. In this view, John Maclean's Home Waters is a wonderful reflection on how a sense of place and shared activity, especially sport, defines our lives, our families, and the meaning we find in them.”

—DAVID BROOKS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MONTANA TROUT UNLIMITED

“‘Home Waters’ details the history of the family, the area’s geology, the ancient trail through the Blackfoot Valley that the Indians followed to hunt the buffalo in the plains. There is a host of characters who vibrate to a different frequency than most of us.”

—THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“This memoir is an ode to its inspirations.”

—THE NEW YORK TIMES