$14.95
FIELD NOTES IS A RIVER ALIVE
$14.95
FIELD NOTES IS A RIVER ALIVE
FIELD NOTES IS A RIVER ALIVE
Four Rivers Run Through It
FIELD NOTES IS A RIVER ALIVE ~ Our 67th Edition for the Summer of 2025 coincides with the American publication of Is a River Alive?, a brilliant and important new book by author Robert Macfarlane. Recounting three epic journeys, Macfarlane surveys the state of Earth’s rivers and the people who are fighting for them. It’s an impossibly large story that is interwoven with a fourth river tale which reveals an extremely personal one.
Macfarlane is a Field Notes user and occasional co-conspirator. We first worked with him a few years ago, making a companion 3-Pack to his book, Underland. We were thrilled to learn that once again, with Is a River Alive?, Field Notes played an important part in his writing process:
“These notebooks were my constant companions during the years of writing Is A River Alive?; always there in pocket or pack. Into them I poured the glitter of primary encounter; image, dialogue, idea. They got dog-eared and foxed and soaked –– and filled with words. The closing of the circle which now sees a new ‘River’ edition of Field Notes flowing out of the finished book makes me very happy indeed.”
Meander
Also returning is Macfarlane’s frequent collaborator, legendary visual artist Stanley Donwood, best known for his artwork for Radiohead and The Smile.
For Is a River Alive?, Donwood starting point for the covers was his entrancing, hand-carved linocut titled “Meander.” Manipulation of the colors and textures of the resulting prints led to a series of works, two of which were chosen for the U.S.A. and U.K. editions of the book.
The highly textured and colorful covers are printed and embossed on Sappi McCoy 100#C Silk stock. Three gloss-white staples bind-in 48 Domtar Lynx 60#T pages featuring a “Cloud Forest Gray” graph grid.
Two of the three Memo books in our 3-Pack reproduce the U.S.A. and U.K. hardcover edition covers, treated with matte, gloss, and reticulated UV varnishes. The third book features the labor of Donwood’s artistic process, the linocut itself—treated with matte and gloss UV varnishes. The embossing and varnishes lend an added tactile element to Donwood’s stunning visuals.
