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William Least Heat-Moon, autographing a copy of PrairyErth for us.
William Least Heat-Moon was at Pioneer Bluffs near Matfield Green yesterday for the premiere of the documentary film by John O’Hara, Return to PrairyErth.
In the film, Heat-Moon talked about his early trips to Chase County in the 1980s and how things have changed since then. He was proud of how much Chase County residents had done for themselves in the past few decades.
See Beccy Tanner’s story in the Wichita Eagle: Pioneer Bluffs celebration draws huge crowd.
I remember the play based on the book. Shaw the one performance (I believe)in Albert Taylor Hall on the Emporia State University Campus. Jean-Ellen Kegler wrote the play adaptation and introduced me to William Least Heat-Moon.
I would like to know more about how/why his book has become a cult classic in Italy.
Here is Heat-Moon’s C-Span Booknotes interview from 1999 on River Horse.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/154123-1
Roger, you may recall that my friend Mariapiera flew from Milan to attend the production of “Voices from PrairyErth.” From my experience (admittedly narrow), Italians are mad about wide open spaces (they have few) and younger cultures (they have age & wisdom). We think of the West as history, of course, but they view us as maverick upstarts — and they like it. I still have everything from the PrairyErth experience, by the way, and hope to give it to a Heat-Moon library one day. Even his wonderful photos. We’re still in touch & he’s obviously doing very well. Cheers, Jean-Ellen