William Least Heat-Moon

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William Least Heat-Moon has made a rich life of scouring the back roads of America.

He did it in 1982, in “Blue Highways,” when he had lost his job and a wife, and set out in an old van he called “Ghost Dancing” to see the country anew. It was a huge bestseller.

He did it in “River-Horse,” going coast-to-coast with a boat and outboard motor. He did it in “PrairyErth,” deep in one Kansas county.

Now, William Least Heat-Moon has been traveling again, away from the interstate and the Big Mac. Out to catfish country, deep woods and pickle pie. Three years and 16,000 miles through Idaho, Maine, Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and more.

This hour, On Point: William Least Heat-Moon and “Roads to Quoz.”

You can join the conversation. Do you dream of hitting the road, exploring corners off the super highways? What do we learn these days by seeking out the least traveled American path?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

William Least Heat-Moon joins us from Seattle, Washington. He’s the author of “Blue Highways,” “PrairyErth,” and “River-Horse.” His new book is “Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey.” He joins us with his wife and fellow traveler in “Roads to Quoz,” Jo Ann Trogdon — or as he calls her, “Q.” The nickname comes from the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, also the name of a Mexican revolutionary hero. She’s an attorney who is taking time off to write a book about the 1798 journey of William Clark of Lewis & Clark fame.

Jo Ann Trogdon, known as “Q” in the book. She rides co-pilot with William Least Heat-Moon. Her nickname “Q” comes from the Mexican state, Quintana Roo, also the name of a Mexican revolutionary hero. She’s an attorney who is taking time off to write a book about the 1798 journey of William Clark (of “Lewis & Clark” fame) – the working title of which is “The Unknown Travels and Dubious Pursuits of William Clark.”

Read an excerpt from “Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey.”

Writer Peter Matthiessen. (AP)

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Thirty years ago, in the heart of the American century, novelist and nature writer Peter Matthiessen took Americans where few, maybe none, had ever been. High into a craggy stretch of the Himalayas in search of some of the most elusive life on the planet.

His book “The Snow Leopard” made a reputation that Matthiessen has carried on into penetrating fiction, environmental activism, deep global encounters, and high Zen Buddhism.

Sounds like a wise man. We could use that right now.

This hour, On Point: A conversation with literary icon Peter Matthiessen.

You can join the conversation. Are you ready for a wise eye and big view of the turmoil we’re in? What’s your question right now for our world-wise Zen master?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Joining us from Long Island is Peter Matthiessen, renowned author, essayist, activist, and environmentalist. He is a winner of the National Book Award and a co-founder of The Paris Review. He has been writing now for more than half a century, and his works are considered classics of contemporary American writing. His landmark travel tale of Himalayan exploration, “The Snow Leopard,” first appeared in print thirty years ago and has just been reissued by Penguin Classics. His latest work of fiction, “Shadow Country,” which came out this year, reworks his epic trilogy of novels set in the Everglades. The American Dictionary of Literary Biography calls him a “shaman of literature.”

More links:

Penguin Classics and the Union of Concerned Scientists have launched a new climate change story project. You can submit your stories and photographs here.

The New York Review of Books, to which Matthiessen has been a long-time contributor, archives his essays here, including this November 2007 piece, “Alaska: Big Oil and the Inupiat-Americans.”