Former UW Press director dies at 73; Fitchen deeply loved literature, classical music

It is every editorâ??s dream to have a classic piece of literature dropped in his or her lap and to shepherd the work on its way toward publishing history.Allen Fitchen lived that dream, beginning in 1974 when Norman Maclean walked into Fitchenâ??s office at the University of Chicago Press and handed him the manuscript that would become the legendary “A River Runs Through It.” Fitchen, who later retired as director of the University of Wisconsin Press, died in Madison on Christmas Day at the age of 73.