William Least Heat-Moon Intro

For the next few days, I will be paying respectful homage to author William Least Heat-Moon (Dr. William Trogdon).  If you are not familiar with him, he is considered a modern-day "Dean of American Travel Writers" (in my humble opinion).  His demographic background is primarily English, Irish, and Osage.

As a first-time writer, his 1983 book "Blue Highways: A Journey into America" came about following the 1978 loss of his teaching job at the University of Missouri - Columbia and his unwanted separation from his first wife.  

From memory (I last reread the book in 2014), the confluence of these painful events seemingly triggered a period of introspection while he "plotted his next move".  Again from memory, it was during this introspection that he reconnected with his Osage roots.

Faced with his uncertain future, he sold off his possessions and scraped up funds to buy a 1975 Ford Econoline van, built in a bunk, added portable toilet, and some other basic travel amenities, and set out on a 3-month long journey that covered 13,000+ miles on back roads, i.e., the "blue highways" in the Rand McNally road atlas, steadfastly avoiding interstate highways and large cities when possible.  In the spirit of his Osage heritage, he named the van "Ghost Dancer".

He made a point of visiting rural small towns with unusual names, e.g., Dime Box, Texas, and Hachita, New Mexico, seeking out and chatting with locals.  If he saw a long-closed store or cafe or an abandoned bus or train station, he would ask about it.  

In this and subsequent books, aside from local history and culture, he did touch upon other subjects within the realm of "Ecocentrism", wherein he weaves together nature-related subjects, e.g., Ecology, Geology, Botany, with local agriculture, history, industry, and economics into the narrative. 

Initially, as there was a level of semi-isolation on these "blue highways" and the towns thereon, some of the people were unsure about "talking with this stranger", but his manners and methods seemed to put them at ease, to the point where they "opened up" to him, while he subtly kept notes.  

Perhaps because they were "speaking with a friendly stranger" (and felt somewhat anonymous), Heat-Moon was often surprised by the "secrets" they would tell him.  Perhaps it was because of the nature of "everybody knowing everybody else's business" in a small town, this was an opportunity to "spill secrets" to an "outsider" without your aged Aunt Martha or the local "Gladys Kravitz" finding out.

By his own account (in the video to be posted tomorrow), the journey took about 100 days.  As mentioned above, at that point he was a first-time writer, an "unknown quantity" to the book editors and publishers of the time, in a genre - American travel by car - that was not seen as glamorous (nor profitable). 

By the time he was "finished" with the project (if one ever is), by his video account, he went through ten drafts.  By his own estimates, from 1978 until the book's 1982 publishing, he spent 1500 days describing the 100 days of his journey.  The follow-up book to "Blue Highways" (though not chronologically) is "Writing Blue Highways" (2014), about the herculean obstacles facing a "rookie author".

Almost 40 years after its 1982 publishing, "Blue Highways" continues to be hailed as a "masterpiece of American travel writing", influencing many people to embark upon their own exploratory journeys across and around the country and in some cases, make a record of that journey, by video and by blog, two media that did not exist contemporaneously with "Blue Highways".  (From his video though, it seems that he is happy making notes on a composition notebook or perhaps a legal pad.)

My first reading of "Blue Highways" took place sometime in the latter months of 1982, if memory serves me correctly.  My former roommate Dave (my 1974 Road Trip cohort) was by then working in a bookstore in a major Northern Atlanta mall and he highly recommended it.  I enjoyed the book, though I was unaware of any subsequent Heat-Moon books until I did a computer search to purchase another copy of "Blue Highways" in 2014.

In 2014, as the fourth-decadal anniversary (40th anniversary) of the 1974 Road Trip approached, I reread "Blue Highways", which inspired me to consider writing my own narrative about the 1974 Road Trip.  Aside from that resurgence of a desire to write, I also had a desire to read more of Heat-Moon's books, in no particular order.  

Heat-Moon's books are so well-detailed that once immersed within one, (paraphrasing a YouTube comment), the reader is "almost afraid of finishing it".  Actually, as they are non-fiction, I wish the books each had an index, so I could look up particular passages and terms to reread and refresh my memory.

A brief bibliography of the books of William Least Heat-Moon (spanning parts of four decades) that I have read follows:

• Blue Highways: A Journey Into America. (1982) 
• PrairyErth (A Deep Map). (1991)
• River Horse: The Logbook of a Boat Across America. (1999) 
  
• Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey.  (2008)
• Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road. (2013) 
  
• Writing Blue Highways: The Story of How a Book Happened.  (2014)

Here is a link to a C-Span Program about "Blue Highways", apparently from 2012.

There may be an upcoming post or two about the book that followed "Blue Highways", "PrairyErth", in 1991.