William Least Heat-Moon on how travel is a new beginning
“When you’re traveling, you are what you are, right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.”
–William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways (1982)
November 10th, 2004 at 8:35 am
William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways is a great book. I used to attend the University he was laid-off from when he left for his journey. Apparently he still lives in the area, but I’ve yet to see him around. Great quote.
November 10th, 2004 at 9:44 am
Indeed! I read Blue Highways when I was quite young, and it was as much an influence as On the Road when I took my 8-month USA jaunt after college…
November 10th, 2004 at 12:37 pm
Where’d you go to school, Rolf?
November 10th, 2004 at 1:41 pm
I went to a small college in Oregon. But I grew up in Kansas, and went to Columbia, Mo. as a kid (one of my dad’s biology mentors, Charles Laun, lived there). Plus, my Uncle Dale was friends with Heat-Moon’s father when he volunteered for the Boy Scouts in KC.
That’s the funny thing about William Least Heat-Moon, by the way — his real name is Bill Trogdon, and he has only a vague whiff of Native American ancestry. His “Indian” name, Least Heat-Moon, actually comes from the Boy Scout ceremonies of his youth.
November 10th, 2004 at 3:58 pm
Very cool. I was born in Kansas City, MO, and lived there until I was three. My father got a job in Texas, so we moved down there and I stayed there until I was 18. I moved to Columbia the day after high school, and been here ever since.
I didn’t know that about Heat-Moon. I mean, I knew that wasn’t his real name, but I just figured his heritage was a bit deaper than that.
Do you come back to Kansas often?
November 10th, 2004 at 11:00 pm
Yup. My family still lives in Kansas, so I get back to Wichita (and my sister’s farm near Salina) once or twice a year…
May 26th, 2006 at 5:54 am
least heat – can i have your email address?…am travelling around the US and will hit some of your old spots….would be fun to share them with you 20+ years after you did them. rey
May 26th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
I remember “Mr. Trogdon”…as one of my favorite English instructors at the University of Missouri, in 1972. I have three of his books, in “First Editions”, and read them often. Recently, Kurt Vonnegut, passed away…it was Mr. Trogdon (Least Heat-Moon) who started me and my fellow Mizzou classmates on the glorious road to modern American literature. I owe Mr. Trogdon a great deal, he has inspired me to continue to explore history and contemporary literature.
I’ll never forget the day that Mr. Trogdon told us about a photo that he took of a geologic rock formation…that looked like the “Playboy” Bunny, and he was published in Playboy in the Letters column with the picture. He is a great American writer, and I am proud to have spent many days listening to his words of wisdom.
May 26th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I remember “Mr. Trogdon”…as one of my favorite English instructors at the University of Missouri, in 1972. I have three of his books, in “First Editions”, and read them often. Recently, Kurt Vonnegut, passed away…it was Mr. Trogdon (Least Heat-Moon) who started me and my fellow Mizzou classmates on the glorious road to modern American literature. I owe Mr. Trogdon a great deal, he has inspired me to continue to explore history and contemporary literature.
I’ll never forget the day that Mr. Trogdon told us about a photo that he took of a geologic rock formation…that looked like the “Playboy” Bunny, and he was published in Playboy in the Letters column with the picture. He is a great American writer, and I am proud to have spent many days listening to his words of wisdom.