One of my favorite books is Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon. It's a beautifully written story of traveling the small roads, the backroads of America, to meet everyday Americans — one's otherwise unknown citizen neighbors. So, I naturally bought his next book, PrairyErth — a deep map. You know from our coursework that I'll sometimes try to open a piece with what I hope is a stage-setting epigraph. Least Heat-Moon opens PrairyErth with more than 30. Maybe it was his attempt to slow my reading down, to get me to immerse myself in a broader concept of geography, to get the "erth" of thought under my fingernails. I usually appreciate attempts to change the familiar – why must magazines always open with a letter from the editor? – but Least Heat-Moon's opener here just made me nervous. Was I supposed to see a pattern, which is the heartbeat of geography? I just wanted to get on with it.
We can try to make an author picture to rival this one.
I can't wait to do this. I love your work and I'm so excited that you'll photograph me.
One of my favorite books is Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon. It's a beautifully written story of traveling the small roads, the backroads of America, to meet everyday Americans — one's otherwise unknown citizen neighbors. So, I naturally bought his next book, PrairyErth — a deep map. You know from our coursework that I'll sometimes try to open a piece with what I hope is a stage-setting epigraph. Least Heat-Moon opens PrairyErth with more than 30. Maybe it was his attempt to slow my reading down, to get me to immerse myself in a broader concept of geography, to get the "erth" of thought under my fingernails. I usually appreciate attempts to change the familiar – why must magazines always open with a letter from the editor? – but Least Heat-Moon's opener here just made me nervous. Was I supposed to see a pattern, which is the heartbeat of geography? I just wanted to get on with it.
Oh, this is interesting. I haven't read his work but now I want to. Thanks so much for chiming in!