Young Men and Fire

By: Norman Maclean

Narrated by: Corey M. Snow

On August 5, 1949, a crew of 15 of the United States Forest Service's elite airborne firefighters, the Smokejumpers, stepped into the sky above a remote forest fire in the Montana wilderness. Two hours after their jump, all but three of these men were dead or mortally burned. Haunted by these deaths for 40 years, Norman Maclean puts back together the scattered pieces of the Mann Gulch tragedy.

©1972 The University of Chicago (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

How confusing early fire studies were

It was a very good read and enlightening! I enjoy learning about fire and while it's destroys so much but in doing so, the beauty of the green carpet of grass that comes back in the best of conditions and realization that some organisms need fire to be it's best.

A masterpiece by Maclean

This is a book I will forever keep on my audible shelf! The prose and narrative was amazing! A great performance! It should be a mandatory read/listen for any student of natural resources and American Western history.

SAMS required read. Doctrine Man reccommended.

i thought the audio version was well done. the story is a great study in team composition and communication.

Stories we need to hear

I am at a loss of words for how the author achieved both an epic story-telling and a research of a neglected historical event.

The Men Who Knew HELL!

This book has a way of grabbing you pulling you in and makes you dive deeper into wanting to understand forest fires.
Could not really understand what these men went tbro especially ones of such young age

The best book I've experienced in years

If you like the outdoors and understanding man's place in it, you will love this book. it's a story, meticulously researched and reconstructed by Norman Maclean. Thirteen young men, "smokejumpers," parachuted to the edge of what became a massive fire that devoured almost all of them. Maclean writes with controlled passion about this catastrophe, how it happened and lessons it offered future wildfire fighters. Maclean's humanity, his literary mastery and his ease with science and humanity in equal measure all make for a compelling story.

Poetic, Somber, and fantastically narrated

wildly vivid and descriptive journey through a historic tragedy for the Smoke Jumpers given a delightful breathe of fresh life through incredible narration. complex sentence and themes are read perfectly.

Way too many side note

The story was descriptive about the whole unfortunate incident, from beginning to end. However, the author seemed to go on and on about facts, which may have seemed pertinent to him, but made it harder to stay engaged in the story.

Wonderful!

How Maclean is able to address scientific information, human emotion, and historical events all at the same time AND make it fascinating and inspiring is beyond my understanding! I loved how we are taught about these young smoke jumpers and an old man running out of time all at the same time. I highly recommend this book!

Moving and technically fascinating story.

Going to listen to the rest of Mclean's writing now. Superb writing and magnificent narration.