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Almost as a rule, Heat-Moon’s works focus very heavily upon the theme of [[Ecocentrism]]. In fact, due to the nature of some of his most well-known novels which center on different methods of traversing the North American landscape, one might say that the ecosystem serves as a necessary foundation for Heat-Moon’s writings. Jonathan Levin, provost of the University of Mary Washington, even goes so far as to label Heat-Moon a “[[Literary naturalism|literary naturalist]]."<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Levin|first=Jonathan|date=2000|title=Coordinates and Connections: Self, Language, and World in Edward Abbey and William Least Heat-Moon|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1208760|journal=Contemporary Literature|volume=41|issue=2|pages=214–251|doi=10.2307/1208760}}</ref> However, it would be inaccurate to state that Heat-Moon follows the ecocentric model “to a tee.” Rather, he attempts to illustrate a hybrid relationship between humans and the environment and how each entity influences the other.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/44087662.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:98cbfa01a2e993c31bd134cc0b827b77|title=Repaving America: Ecocentric Travel in William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways" on JSTOR|website=www.jstor.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-15}}</ref> Nature is presented more as an active character in Heat-Moon’s narratives as opposed to a backdrop.<ref name=":0" /> <ref name=":3" /> As a result, Heat-Moon calls into question the nature of how society defines its own geographical boundaries. Renee Bryzik, a professor at UC Davis, likens Heat-Moon’s method of illustrating this socio-environmental interaction to a reinvigorated analysis of [[Bioregionalism]].<ref name=":0" /> According to Bryzik, what seems most fascinating to Heat-Moon are instances where the line dividing society and nature becomes blurred, and it is difficult to tell whether society has influenced the environment or vice-versa.<ref name=":0" />
Almost as a rule, Heat-Moon’s works focus very heavily upon the theme of [[Ecocentrism]]. In fact, due to the nature of some of his most well-known novels which center on different methods of traversing the North American landscape, one might say that the ecosystem serves as a necessary foundation for Heat-Moon’s writings. Jonathan Levin, provost of the University of Mary Washington, even goes so far as to label Heat-Moon a “[[Literary naturalism|literary naturalist]]."<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Levin|first=Jonathan|date=2000|title=Coordinates and Connections: Self, Language, and World in Edward Abbey and William Least Heat-Moon|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1208760|journal=Contemporary Literature|volume=41|issue=2|pages=214–251|doi=10.2307/1208760}}</ref> However, it would be inaccurate to state that Heat-Moon follows the ecocentric model “to a tee.” Rather, he attempts to illustrate a hybrid relationship between humans and the environment and how each entity influences the other.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/44087662.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:98cbfa01a2e993c31bd134cc0b827b77|title=Repaving America: Ecocentric Travel in William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways" on JSTOR|website=www.jstor.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-15}}</ref> Nature is presented more as an active character in Heat-Moon’s narratives as opposed to a backdrop.<ref name=":0" /> <ref name=":3" /> As a result, Heat-Moon calls into question the nature of how society defines its own geographical boundaries. Renee Bryzik, a professor at UC Davis, likens Heat-Moon’s method of illustrating this socio-environmental interaction to a reinvigorated analysis of [[Bioregionalism]].<ref name=":0" /> According to Bryzik, what seems most fascinating to Heat-Moon are instances where the line dividing society and nature becomes blurred, and it is difficult to tell whether society has influenced the environment or vice-versa.<ref name=":0" />


Heat-Moon’s writings are also not lacking in their share of critiquing how societal progress has negatively affected the ecosystem.<ref name=":32">{{Cite journal|last=Levin|first=Jonathan|date=2000|title=Coordinates and Connections: Self, Language, and World in Edward Abbey and William Least Heat-Moon|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1208760|journal=Contemporary Literature|volume=41|issue=2|pages=214–251|doi=10.2307/1208760}}</ref> The insights that Heat-Moon gained in his travels along the blue highways were two-fold in that while he was able to come to terms with his own personal growth, he was simultaneously able to contemplate upon how he as a human being fit into the greater fabric of the universe. In essence, his ability to comment on the state of the ecosystem post-''Blue Highways'' stemmed from his acquired understanding of how humans interact with their physical surrounding, and how they should interact with their environment.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/44087662.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:98cbfa01a2e993c31bd134cc0b827b77|title=Repaving America: Ecocentric Travel in William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways" on JSTOR|website=www.jstor.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-15}}</ref> ''River Horse'' is particularly effective as a medium for commentary on contemporary [[environmental resource management]] as his travels are reliant upon the conditions of a different kind of blue highway: the rivers of North America.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lang|first=William L.|date=November 2002|title=Water Trails|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/phr.2002.71.4.663|journal=Pacific Historical Review|volume=71|pages=663-668|via=JSTOR}}</ref>
Heat-Moon’s writings are also not lacking in their share of critiquing how societal progress has negatively affected the ecosystem.<ref name=":32">{{Cite journal|last=Levin|first=Jonathan|date=2000|title=Coordinates and Connections: Self, Language, and World in Edward Abbey and William Least Heat-Moon|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1208760|journal=Contemporary Literature|volume=41|issue=2|pages=214–251|doi=10.2307/1208760}}</ref> The insights that Heat-Moon gained in his travels along the blue highways were two-fold in that while he was able to come to terms with his own personal growth, he was simultaneously able to contemplate upon how he as a human being fit into the greater fabric of the universe. In essence, his ability to comment on the state of the ecosystem post-''Blue Highways'' stemmed from his acquired understanding of how humans interact with their physical surrounding, and how they should interact with their environment.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/44087662.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:98cbfa01a2e993c31bd134cc0b827b77|title=Repaving America: Ecocentric Travel in William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways" on JSTOR|website=www.jstor.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-15}}</ref> ''River Horse'' is particularly effective as a medium for commentary on contemporary [[environmental resource management]] as his travels are reliant upon the conditions of a different kind of blue highway: the rivers of North America.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lang|first=William L.|date=November 2002|title=Water Trails|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/phr.2002.71.4.663|journal=Pacific Historical Review|volume=71|pages=663-668|via=JSTOR}}</ref>

<br />

=== Psychology of Self ===
Although Heat-Moon’s ''Blue Highways'' is remembered primarily for the physical trek which covers about 38 of the 50 states in the U.S., the quintessence of the book is the internal journey that Heat-Moon takes. The blue highways allow Heat-Moon the space and the freedom to be able to reflect upon who he is, who he wants to be, and how he fits into the greater world around him.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Ross-Bryant|first=Lynn|date=1997|title=THE SELF IN NATURE: Four American Autobiographies|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/41178763|journal=Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal|volume=80|issue=1|pages=83–104}}</ref> Initiated by the loss of his job and the unraveling of his marriage, his own search for “self” quite literally takes him down the road less traveled. While his van gradually allows him to expand his horizons he also draws from his travel experiences to expand his own personal growth. ''Blue Highways'' has been likened to a cross between [[John Steinbeck|John Steinbeck’s]] ''[[Travels with Charley]]'', and [[Jack Kerouac|Jack Kerouac’s]] ''[[On the Road]]''.<ref name=":03">{{Cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/44087662.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:98cbfa01a2e993c31bd134cc0b827b77|title=Repaving America: Ecocentric Travel in William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways" on JSTOR|website=www.jstor.org|language=en|access-date=2018-11-15}}</ref> Apart from Heat-Moon’s own admission that ''Travels with Charley'' partially influenced the decision to travel and write ''Blue Highways'', the literary tones of both books also parallel each other.<ref name=":03" /> Both authors are around the same age, and they both are interested in exploring the U.S. as thoughtful and reflective observers. On the other hand, Heat-Moon’s circumstances mirror those of Kerouac’s protagonist and as such moves in a more spiritual direction reminiscent of “Beat” culture.<ref name=":03" /> He was himself influenced by Beat writers such as [[Lawrence Ferlinghetti]], and admitted to re-working the concept of Kerouac’s ''On the Road''.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=Banga|first=Shellie|date=Fall 2010|title=More is More: An Interview with William Least Heat-Moon|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43157419|journal=Writing on the Edge|volume=21|pages=92-103|via=JSTOR}}</ref>


==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==

Revision as of 05:19, 17 December 2018

William Least Heat-Moon
Heat-Moon at the Seattle Public Library (2008)
Heat-Moon at the Seattle Public Library (2008)
BornWilliam Lewis Trogdon
(1939-08-27) August 27, 1939 (age 84)
Kansas City, Missouri
OccupationTravel writer, historian
LanguageEnglish
EducationBachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in English
Bachelor's degree in photojournalism
Alma materUniversity of Missouri
GenreDeep map travel literature
Notable worksBlue Highways

William Least Heat-Moon (born William Lewis Trogdon August 27, 1939) is an American travel writer and historian of English, Irish, and Osage ancestry. He is the author of several books on unusual journeys through the United States, including cross-country trips by boat (River Horse, 1999) and, in his best known work (1982's Blue Highways), about his journey in a 1975 Ford Econoline van.[1]

Biography

Least Heat-Moon has Osage and European ancestry. The Trogdon family name comes from his Euro-American lineage, and the Heat-Moon name reflects his Osage lineage. William's father is Heat-Moon, his elder brother is Little Heat-Moon, and he is Least Heat-Moon.[2] Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Least Heat-Moon grew up in Missouri. He attended public schools and the University of Missouri, where he earned bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in English, as well as a bachelor's degree in photojournalism. Heat-Moon was a member of the Beta-Theta chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon. He served as a professor of English at the university.

Least Heat-Moon resides in Rocheport, Missouri. This small town in Boone County is located along the Missouri River, approximately 10 miles west of Columbia.

Works

Blue Highways is a chronicle of a three-month-long road trip that Least Heat-Moon took throughout the United States in 1978 after he had lost his teaching job and been separated from his first wife. He tells how he traveled 13,000 miles, as much as possible on secondary roads (which he points out were often drawn on maps in blue, especially in the old-style Rand McNally road atlas), and tried to avoid cities. Living out of his van, he visited small towns such as Nameless, Tennessee; Hachita, New Mexico; and Bagley, Minnesota, to find places in America untouched by fast food chains and interstate highways. The book records memorable encounters in roadside cafés, as well as his search for something greater than himself. This memoir was highly popular, making the New York Times bestseller list in 1982–83 for 42 weeks.

PrairyErth is a deep map account of the history and people of Chase County, Kansas.

River-Horse is Least Heat-Moon's account of a four-month coast-to-coast boat trip across the U.S. in which he traveled almost exclusively on the nation's waterways from the Atlantic to the Pacific. During this nearly 5,000-mile journey, he followed documented routes recorded by early explorers such as Henry Hudson and the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Columbus in the Americas (2002) is a brief history of Christopher Columbus's journeys.

Roads to Quoz (2008) is another "road book." This covers "not one long road trip, but a series of shorter ones"[3] taken over the years between books. Robert Sullivan of the New York Times Book Review commented that Least Heat-Moon celebrates "serendipity and joyous disorder."[3]

Here, There, Elsewhere (2013) is a collection of Least Heat-Moon's best short-form travel writing.

He edited An Osage Journey to Europe 1827-1830 (2013), which contains the accounts of six Osage people who traveled to Europe in 1827, accompanied by three Americans. Least Heat-Moon and James K. Wallace translated these works into English.

Writing 'Blue Highways' (2014) is an account of how Least Heat-Moon wrote his best-selling book Blue Highways. In reflecting on the journey, he also discusses writing, publishing, personal relationships, and many other aspects that went into writing the book. It won an award for Distinguished Literary Achievement, Missouri Humanities Council, 2015.

Celestial Mechanics: A Tale for a Mid-Winter Night (2017) is William Least Heat-Moon's debut novel.

Themes

Ecocentrism

Almost as a rule, Heat-Moon’s works focus very heavily upon the theme of Ecocentrism. In fact, due to the nature of some of his most well-known novels which center on different methods of traversing the North American landscape, one might say that the ecosystem serves as a necessary foundation for Heat-Moon’s writings. Jonathan Levin, provost of the University of Mary Washington, even goes so far as to label Heat-Moon a “literary naturalist."[4] However, it would be inaccurate to state that Heat-Moon follows the ecocentric model “to a tee.” Rather, he attempts to illustrate a hybrid relationship between humans and the environment and how each entity influences the other.[5] Nature is presented more as an active character in Heat-Moon’s narratives as opposed to a backdrop.[5] [4] As a result, Heat-Moon calls into question the nature of how society defines its own geographical boundaries. Renee Bryzik, a professor at UC Davis, likens Heat-Moon’s method of illustrating this socio-environmental interaction to a reinvigorated analysis of Bioregionalism.[5] According to Bryzik, what seems most fascinating to Heat-Moon are instances where the line dividing society and nature becomes blurred, and it is difficult to tell whether society has influenced the environment or vice-versa.[5]

Heat-Moon’s writings are also not lacking in their share of critiquing how societal progress has negatively affected the ecosystem.[6] The insights that Heat-Moon gained in his travels along the blue highways were two-fold in that while he was able to come to terms with his own personal growth, he was simultaneously able to contemplate upon how he as a human being fit into the greater fabric of the universe. In essence, his ability to comment on the state of the ecosystem post-Blue Highways stemmed from his acquired understanding of how humans interact with their physical surrounding, and how they should interact with their environment.[7] River Horse is particularly effective as a medium for commentary on contemporary environmental resource management as his travels are reliant upon the conditions of a different kind of blue highway: the rivers of North America.[8]


Psychology of Self

Although Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways is remembered primarily for the physical trek which covers about 38 of the 50 states in the U.S., the quintessence of the book is the internal journey that Heat-Moon takes. The blue highways allow Heat-Moon the space and the freedom to be able to reflect upon who he is, who he wants to be, and how he fits into the greater world around him.[9] Initiated by the loss of his job and the unraveling of his marriage, his own search for “self” quite literally takes him down the road less traveled. While his van gradually allows him to expand his horizons he also draws from his travel experiences to expand his own personal growth. Blue Highways has been likened to a cross between John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road.[10] Apart from Heat-Moon’s own admission that Travels with Charley partially influenced the decision to travel and write Blue Highways, the literary tones of both books also parallel each other.[10] Both authors are around the same age, and they both are interested in exploring the U.S. as thoughtful and reflective observers. On the other hand, Heat-Moon’s circumstances mirror those of Kerouac’s protagonist and as such moves in a more spiritual direction reminiscent of “Beat” culture.[10] He was himself influenced by Beat writers such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and admitted to re-working the concept of Kerouac’s On the Road.[11]

Bibliography

  • Blue Highways: A Journey Into America. Fawcett, 1982. ISBN 0-449-21109-6
  • The Red Couch: A Portrait of America. With Kevin Clarke and Horst Wackerbarth. Olympic Marketing Corp, 1984. ISBN 0-912383-05-4
  • "A Glass of Handmade." The Atlantic, November 1987.
  • PrairyErth (A Deep Map). Houghton Mifflin, 1991. ISBN 0-395-48602-5
  • River Horse: The Logbook of a Boat Across America. Houghton Mifflin, 1999. ISBN 0-395-63626-4
  • Columbus in the Americas (Turning Points in History). Wiley, 2002. ISBN 0-471-21189-3
  • Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey. Little, Brown and Company, October 2008. ISBN 978-0-316-11025-9
  • Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road. Little, Brown and Company, January 8, 2013. ISBN 0316110248
  • An Osage Journey to Europe 1827-1830: Three French Accounts. University of Oklahoma Press, October 2013. ISBN 0806144033
  • Writing Blue Highways: The Story of How a Book Happened. University of Missouri Press, May 2014. Hardcover, 978-0-8262-2026-4 / E-book, 978-0-8262-7325-3.
  • Celestial Mechanics: A Tale for a Mid-Winter Night. Three Rooms Press, April 2017. Hardcover, 978-1-941110-56-0 / E-book, 978-1-941110-57-7.

References

  1. ^ "Ghost Dancing: The Blue Highways Van". Museum of Anthropology.
  2. ^ Blue Highways, p. 4.
  3. ^ a b Sullivan, Robert (December 14, 2008), "On the Road Again, Again", New York Times Book Review, p. 8
  4. ^ a b Levin, Jonathan (2000). "Coordinates and Connections: Self, Language, and World in Edward Abbey and William Least Heat-Moon". Contemporary Literature. 41 (2): 214–251. doi:10.2307/1208760.
  5. ^ a b c d "Repaving America: Ecocentric Travel in William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways" on JSTOR" (PDF). www.jstor.org. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  6. ^ Levin, Jonathan (2000). "Coordinates and Connections: Self, Language, and World in Edward Abbey and William Least Heat-Moon". Contemporary Literature. 41 (2): 214–251. doi:10.2307/1208760.
  7. ^ "Repaving America: Ecocentric Travel in William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways" on JSTOR" (PDF). www.jstor.org. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  8. ^ Lang, William L. (November 2002). "Water Trails". Pacific Historical Review. 71: 663–668 – via JSTOR.
  9. ^ Ross-Bryant, Lynn (1997). "THE SELF IN NATURE: Four American Autobiographies". Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 80 (1): 83–104.
  10. ^ a b c "Repaving America: Ecocentric Travel in William Least Heat-Moon's "Blue Highways" on JSTOR" (PDF). www.jstor.org. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  11. ^ Banga, Shellie (Fall 2010). "More is More: An Interview with William Least Heat-Moon". Writing on the Edge. 21: 92–103 – via JSTOR.
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