Blue Highways: A Journey into America

William Least Heat-Moon (1982)
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THE A5 BOOK REVIEW

Blue Highways is a deep and insightful travel book written by William Least Heat-Moon about a 1978 extended road trip around the United States, focusing on the small roads (as typically drawn in blue in the old Rand McNally atlases) and some of the most rural parts of America.  He made his way with a specially designed van that he nicknamed “Ghost Dancing”, carrying Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and John Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks for inspiration.   He hit the road after separating from his wife and losing his job, setting an introspective tone for the trip and a willingness simply to travel for travel’s sake.  His conversations with the extraordinary people he met, including a teenage runaway, local fishermen and farmers, a rural Nevada prostitute, local bartenders, diner waitresses, and a Native American medical student, provide a great view into the true American experience at that time in history.  The book is described by some as a masterpiece of American travel writing.
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ABOUT WILLIAM LEAST HEAT-MOON

William Least Heat-Moon is an American travel writer and historian with Osage Nation Native American lineage from his father’s side of the family, by far best known for Blue Highways.  His other travel books include River Horse (1999), the account of a four month boat trip across the US and Here, There, Elsewhere (2013), a collection of his best travel writing articles and essays.  Other works include histories of Christopher Columbus and the accounts of six Osage people who traveled to Europe in 1827.

OTHER RECOMMENDED TRAVEL BOOKS ON GREAT AMERICAN ROADTRIPS

Travels with Charley

Those who liked Moon's Blue Highways should also read one of our top recommendations, John Steinbeck's memoir on his 1960 road trip across the country, Travels With Charley.  He also wanted to try to experience the true America, and this memoir provides both a nice view into that time in our country's history and into the mind of the famous writer himself.  Click here to see our review of Travels with Charley.

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America

In his first travel book, Bill Bryson wrote about his own road trip around the country, documented in The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America.   His narration is insightful as he reminisces about the downfall of modernization, but also hilarious, a great introduction into one of the world's most popular travel writers.  Click here to see our review of The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America.

GREAT QUOTES FROM BLUE HIGHWAYS

“What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. 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.” 

“Instead of insight, maybe all a man gets is strength to wander for a while. Maybe the only gift is a chance to inquire, to know nothing for certain. An inheritance of wonder and nothing more.” 

"American travel writing is a constantly rewarding genre in the right hands.  William Least Heat-Moon has great hands."
- J.D. Reed, TIME

INTERESTING LINKS:

  • ​Read the New York Times 1983 review by Anatole Broyoard on Blue Highways.
  • See Moon's trip with an interesting virtual map from Littourati.
  • Blue Highways is named after the old blue colored lines on the smaller roads in the Rand McNally atlas.  The design is different today.

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