Heat-Moon

From Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” to William Least Heat-Moon’s “Blue Highways” to John Steinbeck’s “Travels With Charley,” automobile odysseys are a staple of American literature, but here Towles puts his own engaging stamp on the formula.

When William Least Heat-Moon lost his job teaching English, he set out to explore the back roads of American life.

Heat-Moon visited small towns like Subtle, Ky., and Scratch Ankle, Alaska, absorbing local color and wisdom.

I’ve crossed truly wild spaces by boat, plane and dog sled, and logged tens of thousands of miles on what the author William Least Heat-Moon called “blue highways” in his book of the same name, the two-lane blacktops that serve as the nervous system of rural America.

William Least Heat-Moon is just such a traveler.