Field Notes "Is a River Alive" Notebooks

Our 67th Quarterly 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, interwoven with an extremely personal fourth river tale.

Macfarlane is a long-time 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.

Donwood’s starting point for the Is a River Alive? 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 U.V. varnishes. The third book features the labor of Donwood’s artistic process, the linocut itself—treated with matte and gloss U.V. varnishes. The embossing and varnishes lend an added tactile element to Donwood’s stunning visuals.