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)
2004-11-10 08:35
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.
2004-11-10 09:44
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...
2004-11-10 12:37
Where'd you go to school, Rolf?
2004-11-10 13:41
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.
2004-11-10 15:58
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?
2004-11-10 23:00
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...
2006-05-26 05:54
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
2007-05-26 19:02
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.
2007-05-26 19:03
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.