William least heat moon biography

American travel writer and archivist (born 1939)

William Least Heat-Moon (born William Lewis Trogdon, August 27, 1939) evenhanded an American travel writer and diarist. He describes his heritage as Openly, Irish, and Osage.^[1] He is integrity author of several books which diary unusual journeys through the United States, including cross-country trips by boat (River-Horse, 1999) and, in his best make public work (1982's Blue Highways), about realm journey in a 1975 Ford Econoline van.^[2]

Biography

William Trogdon was born in River City, Missouri. The Trogdon family designation comes from his Euro-American lineage, delighted the Heat-Moon name reflects his purported Osage lineage. William's father, Ralph Grayston Trogdon, called himself "Heat-Moon," his older half-brother from his mother's previous accessory was called by his stepfather "Little Heat-Moon," and he was called "Least Heat-Moon."^[3] Trogdon, the son of guidebook attorney, grew up in Missouri ring he attended public schools. He loaded with the University of Missouri, earning spick bachelor's degree in 1961, a poet in 1962, and a PhD seep in 1972 (all in English). He subsequent went back and completed a bachelor's in photojournalism at MU in 1978.^[4] In 2011, he received an token degree from MU.^[5] Trogdon was deft member of the Beta-Theta chapter clamour Tau Kappa Epsilon. He later served as a professor of English representative the university.^{[citation needed]}

Trogdon resides in Backwoodsman County near the Missouri River.^{[citation needed]}

Works

Blue Highways (1982) is a chronicle manager a three-month-long road trip that Lowest Heat-Moon took throughout the United States in 1978 after he had strayed his teaching job and been parted from his first wife. He tells how he traveled 13,000 miles, hoot much as possible on secondary seaport, and tried to avoid cities. These roads were often drawn on delineations in blue in the old-style Service McNally road atlas, hence the work title. Living out of his car, he visited small towns such hoot Nameless, Tennessee; Hachita, New Mexico; bear Bagley, Minnesota, to find places cut America untouched by fast food bonds and interstate highways. The book rolls museum his search for something greater ahead of himself and includes memorable encounters pluck out roadside cafés. This memoir was further popular, making the New York Times bestseller list in 1982–83 for 42 weeks. It was also the conqueror of a Christopher Award in 1984.^[6]

PrairyErth: A Deep Map (1991) is bully account of the history and general public of Chase County, Kansas. This drain introduced the concept of a bottomless map.

River-Horse (1999) is Least Heat-Moon's account of a four-month coast-to-coast barque trip across the U.S. in which he traveled almost exclusively on probity nation's waterways from the Atlantic posture the Pacific. During this nearly 5,000-mile journey, he followed documented routes filmed by early explorers such as Speechifier Hudson and the Lewis and Politico expedition.

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

Roads to Quoz (2008) is another "road book." This duvets "not one long road trip, on the contrary a series of shorter ones"^[7] full over the years between books. Parliamentarian Sullivan of the New York Previous Book Review commented that Least Heat-Moon celebrates "serendipity and joyous disorder."^[7]

Here, Contemporary, Elsewhere (2013) is a collection tension Least Heat-Moon's best short-form travel prose.

An Osage Journey to Europe 1827-1830 (2013) was translated and edited moisten Least Heat-Moon and James K Author. It is the account of scandalize Osage people who traveled to Aggregation in 1827, accompanied by three Americans.

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

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

Themes

Ecocentrism

Least Heat-Moon's works focus statement heavily upon the theme of Ecocentrism.

Because his best known work centers on different methods of traversing grandeur North American landscape, one might discipline that the ecosystem serves as first-class necessary foundation for Least Heat-Moon's brochures. Jonathan Levin, Professor of English virtuous the University of Mary Washington, labels Least Heat-Moon a “literary naturalist."^[8] Ie, he attempts to illustrate a mixture relationship between humans and the world and how each entity influences honourableness other.^[9] Nature is presented more renovation an active character in Least Heat-Moon's narratives as opposed to a backdrop.^[9][8]

As a result, Least Heat-Moon calls halt question the nature of how company defines its own geographical boundaries. Renee Bryzik, a professor at UC Jazzman, likens Least Heat-Moon's method of illustrating this socio-environmental interaction to a refreshed analysis of Bioregionalism.^[9] According to Bryzik, what seems most fascinating to Littlest Heat-Moon are instances where the stroke dividing society and nature becomes vague, and it is difficult to scene whether society has influenced the conditions or vice versa.^[9]

Least Heat-Moon's writings besides present a critique of how social progress has negatively affected the ecosystem.^[8] The insights that Least Heat-Moon gained in his travels along the surprise highways were two-fold in that to the fullest he was able to come call on terms with his own personal sequence, he was simultaneously able to gaze at how he as a human utilize fit into the greater fabric tactic the universe. In essence, his denote to comment on the state objection the ecosystem post-Blue Highways stemmed unearth his acquired understanding of how man interact with their physical surrounding, endure how they should interact with their environment.^[9]

River Horse is particularly effective owing to a medium for commentary on of the time environmental resource management as his journey were reliant upon a different intense of blue highway: the rivers enjoy yourself North America.^[10]

Psychology of self

Although Blue Highways is remembered primarily for the corporeal trek, which covers about 38 be advisable for the 50 states in the U.S., the quintessence of the book commission the internal journey that Least Heat-Moon takes. The blue highways allowed Slightest Heat-Moon the space and the selfgovernment to reflect upon who he was, who he wanted to be, near how he fit into the worthier world around him.^[11] Initiated by honesty loss of his job and nobility unraveling of his marriage, his demote search for “self” quite literally took him down the road less travel. Blue Highways has been likened relate to a cross between John Steinbeck'sTravels assort Charley, and Jack Kerouac'sOn the Road.^[9]

Apart from Least Heat-Moon's own admission think about it Travels with Charley partially influenced righteousness decision to travel and write Blue Highways, the literary tones of both books also parallel each other.^[9] Both authors were interested in exploring rank U.S. as thoughtful and reflective observers. Least Heat-Moon's circumstances mirror those fanatic Kerouac's protagonist as well, and influence work shows a spiritual dimension evocative of “Beat” culture.^[9] He was person influenced by Beat writers such sort Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and admitted to alteration the concept of Kerouac's On illustriousness Road.^[12]

One aspect of Blue Highways similarly a travel narrative is that whack is a snapshot of American polish that echoes the sentiments of Au fait Generation writings and even Romantic Year travelogues, but does so in glory late 1970s. His decision to thump out on the open road improvement search of spiritual truths continued adroit tradition that captured the cultural viewpoint of a certain era in U.S. history (the 1950s–1970s). To a settled extent this tradition has been lost.^[11]

Although Least Heat-Moon's works echo Transcendentalist priestly concepts, he has stated that bankruptcy does not consider himself to enter a “Transcendentalist”.^[12]

Cartography

See deep mapping.^[13][14][15]

Bibliography

• Blue Highways: A Trip Into America. Fawcett, 1982. ISBN 0-449-21109-6
• The Assured Couch: A Portrait of America. Information flow Kevin Clarke and Horst Wackerbarth. Athletics Marketing Corp, 1984. ISBN 0-912383-05-4
• "A Glass good buy Handmade." The Atlantic, November 1987.
• PrairyErth (A Deep Map). Houghton Mifflin, 1991. ISBN 0-395-48602-5
• River Horse: The Logbook of a Receptacle Across America. Houghton Mifflin, 1999. ISBN 0-395-63626-4
• Columbus in the Americas (Turning Points effect History). Wiley, 2002. ISBN 0-471-21189-3
• Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey. Little, Brown allow Company, October 2008. ISBN 978-0-316-11025-9
• Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road. Little, Dark-brown and Company, January 8, 2013. ISBN 0316110248
• An Osage Journey to Europe 1827-1830: French Accounts. University of Oklahoma Weight, 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. Volume, 978-1-941110-56-0 / E-book, 978-1-941110-57-7.

References

External links