Blue Highways: A Journey Into America (Travel Trilogy #1) [B0184]

1999 PB reprint of the 1982 original, with a new Afterword by the author, in nice clean condition. Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map -- if they get on at all -- only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi."

His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along his roundabout 13,000-mile trip down the back roads amount to a revelation of the true American experience. Robert Penn Warren said, "He has a genius for finding people who have not even found themselves." The power of Heat-Moon's writing and his delight in the overlooked and the unexamined capture a sense of our national destiny, the true American experience.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "America has such a wide diversity and history. The author of this book learns about local history...our history. The road is sometimes the best life lesson."; "Apparently this is a classic of travel writing. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, mostly because of the interviews Heat-Moon has with the people he meets along the way. This is something of a time capsule as it takes place in the late 70s before even more small towns disappeared or turned into Walmart country. Our book club had an interest discussion about it, mostly of us agreeing you couldn't take this trip today."