William heat moon biography

Americanauthor, born in Kansas City, Missouri, educated at the University of Missouri. Originally named William Trogdon, he adopted his Native American name, which translates as ‘Least Heat Moon’. He taught in Columbia, Missouri, from 1965 to 1978, when, reacting against the uniform materialism of modern American life, he embarked on a three-month journey around the USA in a van; the widely popular Blue Highways: A Journey into America (1982) forms an abundantly detailed record of the landscapes and societies he passed through. In 1991 Heat Moon published PrairyErth, his attempt to construct a ‘deep map’ of Chase County, Kansas, through the collation of an extraordinary range of information on the human and natural characters of the area.

Personal

Born William Trogdon, August 27, 1939, in Kansas City, MO; son of Ralph G. (a lawyer) and Maurine(a homemaker; maiden name, Davis) Trogdon; married, 1967; wife's name, Lezlie (divorced, 1978); married Linda Keown (a teacher). Education: University of Missouri at Columbia, B.A. (literature), 1961, M.A., 1962, Ph.D., 1973, B.A. (photojournalism), 1978.

Addresses

Homem— Columbia, MO. Officem— 222 Berkeley St., Boston, MA 02116. Agentm— Lois Wallace, 177 East 70th St., New York, NY 10021.

Career

Writer and educator. Stephens College, Columbia, MO, teacher of English, 1965-68, 1972, 1978; lecturer at University of Missouri School of Journalism, 1984-87. Military service: U.S. Navy, served on U.S.S. Lake Champlain, 1964-65; became personnelman third class.

Awards, Honors

New York Times notable book, and among five best nonfiction books by Time, both 1983, and Christopher Award, and Books-across-the-Sea Award, both1984, all for Blue Highways: A Journey into America; PrairyErth (a deep map) selected among best works of nonfiction, American Library Association, named among four best books about the West, Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association, and named a New York Times notable book, all 1991; Edgar Wolfe Literary Award, 1993; Leila Lenore Heasley Prize, 2000; Mahan Award in Poetry; Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Missouri at Columbia.

Writings

(Author of introduction) Clarence Jonk, River Journey , Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1964.

(And photographer) Blue Highways: A Journey into America, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1982, reprinted, Back Bay Books (Boston, MA), 1999.

(And creator of maps and petroglyphs) PrairyErth (a deep map), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1991.

This Land Is Your Land: Across America by Air, photographs by Marilyn Bridges, Aperture (New York, NY), 1997.

River-Horse: The Logbook of a Boat across America, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1999.

(Author of

William Least Heat-Moon (born William Lewis Trogdon, August 27, 1939) is an American travel writer and historian. He describes his heritage as English, Irish, and Osage. He is the author of several books which chronicle unusual journeys through the United States, including cross-country trips by boat (River-Horse, 1999) and, in his best known work (1982's Blue Highways), about his journey in a 1975 Ford Econoline van.

Biography

William Trogdon was born in Kansas City, Missouri. The Trogdon family name comes from his Euro-American lineage, and the Heat-Moon name reflects his claimed Osage lineage. William's father, Ralph Grayston Trogdon, called himself "Heat-Moon," his elder half-brother from his mother's previous marriage was called by his stepfather "Little Heat-Moon," and he was called "Least Heat-Moon." Trogdon, the son of an attorney, grew up in Missouri where he attended public schools. He attended the University of Missouri, earning a bachelor's degree in 1961, a masters in 1962, and a PhD in 1972 (all in English). He later went back and completed a bachelor's in photojournalism at MU in 1978. In 2011, he received an honorary degree from MU. Trogdon was a member of the Beta-Theta chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon. He later served as a professor of English at the university.

Trogdon resides in Boone County near the Missouri River.

Works

Blue Highways (1982) is a chronicle of a three-month-long road trip that Least Heat-Moon took throughout the United States in 1978 after he had los

American travel writer and historian (born 1939)

William Least Heat-Moon (born William Lewis Trogdon, August 27, 1939) is an American travel writer and historian. He describes his heritage as English, Irish, and Osage. He is the author of several books which chronicle unusual journeys through the United States, including cross-country trips by boat (River-Horse, 1999) and, in his best known work (1982's Blue Highways), about his journey in a 1975 Ford Econoline van.

Biography

William Trogdon was born in Kansas City, Missouri. The Trogdon family name comes from his Euro-American lineage, and the Heat-Moon name reflects his claimed Osage lineage. William's father, Ralph Grayston Trogdon, called himself "Heat-Moon," his elder half-brother from his mother's previous marriage was called by his stepfather "Little Heat-Moon," and he was called "Least Heat-Moon." Trogdon, the son of an attorney, grew up in Missouri where he attended public schools. He attended the University of Missouri, earning a bachelor's degree in 1961, a masters in 1962, and a PhD in 1972 (all in English). He later went back and completed a bachelor's in photojournalism at MU in 1978. In 2011, he received an honorary degree from MU. Trogdon was a member of the Beta-Theta chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon. He later served as a professor of English at the university.

Trogdon resides in Boone County near the Missouri River.

Works

Blue Highways (1982) is a chronicle of a three-month-long road trip that Least Heat-Moon took throughout the United States in 1978 after he had lost his teaching job and been separated from his first wife. He tells how he traveled 13,000 miles, as much as possible on secondary roads, and tried to avoid cities. These roads were often drawn on maps in blue in the old-style Rand McNally road atlas, hence the book titl