A River Runs Through It and Other Stories was first published by the University of Chicago Press in May 1976. This first edition included a jacket illustration and several spot drawings and vignettes, created on scratchboard by the book's designer, Robert Williams.[7] Williams's illustrations were retained in several subsequent printings and editions of the book. For the first paperback edition, Williams's blue jacket design was replaced by a landscape photograph by John B. Roberts showing Seeley Lake and surrounding forests, the site of Norman Maclean's cabin.[8] In 1983, the University of Chicago Press published an illustrated edition of the title novella with color photographs by Joel Snyder and a new postscript by Maclean commenting on the photographs.
In 1989, the University of Chicago Press and Pennyroyal Press collaborated to publish an edition designed and illustrated with woodcuts by "America's preeminent booksmith"[9] Barry Moser, which remains in print.[10] Moser's engravings include a portrait of Norman Maclean's brother Paul, an illustration of Paul's fishing hat, and illustrations of trout flies tied by George Croonenberghs, who tied flies for the Maclean family. "On the reverse of each illustrated page we find the fly's colloquial name and brief advice on how it may be fished."[11] Pennyroyal Press published a collector's edition of the illustrated volume limited to 200 copies signed by Maclean and Moser.
With the release of Robert Redford's film adaptation of A River Runs through It, the University of Chicago Press licensed a mass-market, movie tie-in edition to Pocket Books[12] and released a trade paperback edition with a re-designed cover featuring a painting by Russell Chatham.[13] In 2001, the University of Chicago Press published a twenty-fifth anniversary edition of A River Runs through It and Other Stories with a foreword by Annie Proulx.[14] In 2017, the press replaced that edition with a newly typeset and designed edition featuring a foreword by Robert Redford.[15]
