Here is a completely un-affiliated link to Norman Maclean’s masterpiece, Young Men and Fire, a book that is deeper and kinder and better than most of the books we have created as a society, and one that can be re-read every year of your life.
“I, an old man, have written this fire report. Among other things, it was important to me, as an exercise for old age, to enlarge my knowledge and spirit so I could accompany young men whose lives I might have lived on their way to death. I have climbed where they climbed, and in my time I have fought fire and inquired into its nature. In addition, I have lived to get a better understanding of myself and those close to me, many of them now dead. Perhaps it is not odd, at the end of this tragedy, where nothing much was left of the elite who came from the sky, but courage struggling for oxygen, that I have often found myself thinking of my wife on her brave and lonely way to death.” –Norman Maclean
Here’s some more information on the work done by hotshots crews in wilderness areas and a link to some donation options.
Tags: books, fire, norman maclean, tragedies
Thank you Nicole! My dad flied fire suppression aircraft almost every season, and a lot of my friends are smoke-jumpers or rap-attack, and my heart is just broken for the Arizona crew and their loved ones.
This book is the best, and so heartbreaking. I think about Maclean not finishing it before he died, the book as memento mori, and the just immense empathy that surrounds every page. I think it’s one of the greatest tributes to public service that’s ever been published.
This book is the best, and so heartbreaking. I think about Maclean not finishing it before he died, the book as memento mori, and the just immense empathy that surrounds every page. I think it's one of the greatest tributes to public service that's ever been published.
It occurs to me after reading all of the press about Hot Shots lately how very unusual it must have been for my cousin to be a Hot Shot as a woman. (She’s not any more, since she married a guy on her crew and had kids).
That’s on my to-read list (I’m currently working through The Big Burn), but I’d also really recommend Sebastian Junger’s Fire. There’s also this article in Outside that’s coming out this July I think. http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/na…
Wildland firefighters are the epitome of public servants, I have the utmost respect for them.
Oh, The Big Burn- that was a fantastic read, with additional resonance because the battle to prove that public resources ought to be generously channelled toward firefighting has to be fought anew with every budget cycle.
One more from the late Maclean: “They were still so young they hadn’t learned to count the odds and to sense they might owe the universe a tragedy.”
Truly one of the best books ever. I started having flashbacks to it as soon as I heard about Yarnell.
OK, I am finally going to read this book. I have bought two copies of it since Nicole recommended it on The Hairpin (passed one along to my dad). It’s time.
A norman maclean tag on day one – I knew I liked you guys.
When I was 13 years old, I would listen to Richard Shindell's cover of "Cold Missouri Waters" (written by James Keelaghan about the Mann Gulch fire) on repeat with the door closed and basically wallow in the sadness of it all. Now, 14 years later, I think I need to finally read the book that inspired it.
(Okay okay…and maybe go listen to that song one more time. Because you guys, it's really good.)
Such a beautiful book, by far my favorite of Nicole’s recs. Going to dig it out of the closet and read it again.