WILLIAM LEAST HEAT MOON — Blue Highways: A Journey Into America

Picador. 1984. Paperback with dust jacket, 20cm. Book, reviewer >> 'When Least Heat-Moon lost his job in a college in Missouri, he got a half-ton Ford van, packed a few necessaries, including Leaves of Grass and Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks, and set out to follow the track of various ancestors and write a book about America. The book is called Blue Highways and it is a masterpiece .. Least Heat-Moon has a genius for finding people who have not even found themselves, exploring their lives, capturing their language, and recreating little (or big) worlds, or moments. In short, he makes America seem new, in a very special way, and its people new. Blue Highways is a magnificent and unique tour.' Robert Penn Warren 'Least Heat-Moon is a witty, generous, sophisticated and democratic observer. His modesty, his subtle, kindly humour, and his uncanny gift for catching good people at good moments makes Blue Highways a joy to read.' Annie Dillard 412pp + map & index , Good/None issued.