OT: Coming up on 75 years ago, Mann Gulch fire

[LionJim]

Thirteen dead firefighters. Norman Maclean wrote a splendid book about this, Young Men and Fire. This book has an applied mathematician as a character, just saying. “Mathematicians are very clear writers.” Great book.

Maclean is better known for A River Runs Through It, one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read. “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut from the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time.”

The New Yorker has a new article on Maclean, explains the facts about his brother’s death. (In ARRTI Maclean moved his brother’s death from Chicago to Montana.)

Mann Gulch fire - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Norman Maclean Didn’t Publish Much. What He Did Contains Everything

You could read his literary output in a single day, yet it includes almost all there is to know about what the English language can do.

www.newyorker.com

 

[BobPSU92]

Thirteen dead firefighters. Norman Maclean wrote a splendid book about this, Young Men and Fire. This book has an applied mathematician as a character, just saying. “Mathematicians are very clear writers.” Great book.

Maclean is better known for A River Runs Through It, one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read. “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut from the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time.”

The New Yorker has a new article on Maclean, explains the facts about his brother’s death. (In ARRTI Maclean moved his brother’s death from Chicago to Montana.)

Mann Gulch fire - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Norman Maclean Didn’t Publish Much. What He Did Contains Everything

You could read his literary output in a single day, yet it includes almost all there is to know about what the English language can do.

www.newyorker.com

From the Wikipedia article:

”During the next few minutes, a "blow-up" of the fire covered 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) in ten minutes, claiming the lives of 13 firefighters, including 12 of the smokejumpers.“

3000 acres in 10 minutes. Wow.

 

[LionJim]

From the Wikipedia article:

”During the next few minutes, a "blow-up" of the fire covered 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) in ten minutes, claiming the lives of 13 firefighters, including 12 of the smokejumpers.“

3000 acres in 10 minutes. Wow.

Yeah, that’s what Young Men and Fire is about, basically. How exactly could it have happened? “In the end, nothing much was left of the Elite other than courage struggling for oxygen.” (Paraphrased from memory.)

The New Yorker article mentioned that Maclean’s favorite professor at Dartmouth was Robert Frost.

 

[WestSideLion]

Thirteen dead firefighters. Norman Maclean wrote a splendid book about this, Young Men and Fire. This book has an applied mathematician as a character, just saying. “Mathematicians are very clear writers.” Great book.

Maclean is better known for A River Runs Through It, one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read. “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut from the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time.”

The New Yorker has a new article on Maclean, explains the facts about his brother’s death. (In ARRTI Maclean moved his brother’s death from Chicago to Montana.)

Mann Gulch fire - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Norman Maclean Didn’t Publish Much. What He Did Contains Everything

You could read his literary output in a single day, yet it includes almost all there is to know about what the English language can do.

www.newyorker.com

Thanks for sharing. I’ve admired MacLean for many years. His writing about trying to help loved ones who fail to want help spoke to me personally. He was a great writer and life philosopher.

 

[throw2oj]

My forest has the Rattlesnake Fire shortly after in the 50's with a total of 15 dead.

Rattlesnake Fire - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The area reburned in the massive August Complex in 2020, part of the large fire season out here in CA. The white crosses are marked on the hillside and still stand, pictures are from 2022 when I passed through on my way to the SO.




Initially I assumed the folks were trying to hike up and out of the box canyon like Mann Gulch, but turns out they were trying to hike down and the fire crested the ridge and came down on them, which is a bit of a different vibe.

 

[throw2oj]

Same hill, from 2018.




From 2020, just up the road at the Rattlesnake overlook off CA162/FH7

 

[LionJim]

Thanks for sharing. I’ve admired MacLean for many years. His writing about trying to help loved ones who fail to want help spoke to me personally. He was a great writer and life philosopher.

Yes, memorable lines. I can't swear that the lines below are correctly taken down (I never trust the internet on poetry, I actually looked for it for a half-hour, I'm very particular, if not anal, about correct quotes), but I can't find my copy. I'll be in Rehoboth Beach tomorrow and shall mosey over to Browseabout Books and get a new copy.

“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”

 

[LionJim]

Yes, memorable lines. I can't swear that the lines below are correctly taken down (I never trust the internet on poetry, I actually looked for it for a half-hour, I'm very particular, if not anal, about correct quotes), but I can't find my copy. I'll be in Rehoboth Beach tomorrow and shall mosey over to Browseabout Books and get a new copy.

“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”

The older I get, the more these lines hit home. Yeats, too, I've recognized for years that he's an old man's poet and now I'm 67.

Now shall I make my soul,
Compelling it to study
In a learned school
Till the wreck of body,
Slow decay of blood,
Testy delirium
Or dull decrepitude,
Or what worse evil come –
The death of friends, or death
Of every brilliant eye
That made a catch in the breath –
Seem but the clouds of the sky
When the horizon fades;
Or a bird's sleepy cry
Among the deepening shades.

 

[LionJim]

The older I get, the more these lines hit home. Yeats, too, I've recognized for years that he's an old man's poet and now I'm 67.

Now shall I make my soul,
Compelling it to study
In a learned school
Till the wreck of body,
Slow decay of blood,
Testy delirium
Or dull decrepitude,
Or what worse evil come –
The death of friends, or death
Of every brilliant eye
That made a catch in the breath –
Seem but the clouds of the sky
When the horizon fades;
Or a bird's sleepy cry
Among the deepening shades.

Testy delirium means exactly what you think it might mean.

 

[WestSideLion]

Yes, memorable lines. I can't swear that the lines below are correctly taken down (I never trust the internet on poetry, I actually looked for it for a half-hour, I'm very particular, if not anal, about correct quotes), but I can't find my copy. I'll be in Rehoboth Beach tomorrow and shall mosey over to Browseabout Books and get a new copy.

“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”

That’s what I remember verbatim. I just bought a used hardback copy on Amazon today after reading your post. I misplaced the softcover I bought years ago.

 

[LionJim]

That’s what I remember verbatim. I just bought a used hardback copy on Amazon today after reading your post. I misplaced the softcover I bought years ago.

Be sure to read the introduction and the two accompanying stories. Hysterical.