Talk:William Least Heat-Moon

Name spelling

In a blurb on the back cover of "Blue Highways", his last name is spelled "Least Heat Moon". Is this a spelling we can all agree on? If so, should we move the article to the new spelling? Capitolhillbooks (talk) 23:40, 1 July 2009 (UTC) It should be noted that his nom de plume is an honorific name from a Boy Scouts of America camping organization in Missouri, a psuedo-Native American tribe called Mic-O-Say. That is not to say that his claim of Osage Indian heritage is false, but the Boy Scouts is where his name originated. He has admitted as much in interviews with the Kansas City Star.

River Horse spelling

On the cover of "River Horse" (copyright 1999), it is spelled "Heat-Moon." 166.205.8.246 (talk) 18:14, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

In "Blue Highways Revisited" Heat-Moon says he added the hyphen after "Blue Highways" was published, to stop people calling him "Mr. Moon". So that's the correct punctuation. Laodah 18:52, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

Biography

The last two sentences of the first paragraph in the Biography section seem rather sparse. The sentences would sound more complete with some information as to when, or over what time period, the two events took place. If someone knows the information, it would be nice if it were added to these two sentences.CorinneSD (talk) 17:41, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

Works

The first sentence of the fourth paragraph in the section headed "Works," it reads "the trilogy". Maybe I am missing something, but I could not find any reference to a trilogy early in the article. Perhaps someone who knows Least Heat-Moon's works knows which work is the trilogy. "The trilogy" should not be used if there is no prior mention of the trilogy. Also, in the second sentence, I deleted the word "former" before "trilogy". (The word "former" should only be used if the writer is trying to distinguish between two trilogies, both titles already mentioned, and one would be the former and one would be the latter. Since no trilogies have yet been mentioned, "former" is entirely unnecessary.) CorinneSD (talk) 18:26, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

After typing this, I went back to the article and searched again for mention of a trilogy and found it in the very first paragraph of the article. However, that mention of a trilogy does not give the title, and the reader is left guessing as to which of his works is the trilogy. I think that, when the title is given later on in the article, it should be indicated that it is the trilogy. Does anyone know which title is the trilogy? CorinneSD (talk) 18:34, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

I revised the phrasing to remove the "trilogy" description. Whoever wrote "trilogy" is grouping the 3 titles Blue Highways, PrairyErth, and River-Horse into a trilogy. Although in one way there's nothing wrong with that, and it is no doubt an interesting way to think of those titles, I removed it, because it seems a little unfair to the author. Who gets to say that those titles have been bookended into a closed group? I imagine that Roads to Quoz and his future works belong to the group too, and it will end up being just as much a tetralogy, pentalogy, or other n+1-logy. Let's hope he's still busy writing when he's over 90! — ¾-10 21:15, 3 August 2013 (UTC)

O.K. You seem to know more than I do about his works, but I agree with your hope that he continue to write.CorinneSD (talk) 00:10, 4 August 2013 (UTC)

Residence location

He lives in Rocheport? Seems like a stretch to me considering his house is probably ten miles from Rocheport, but nearly within the Columbia city limits. Grey Wanderer (talk) 00:18, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

Native American heritage

I do not understand why the author of this article would question Mr. Heat-Moon's statement as to his heritage. There is no authority cited to contradict this. 108.26.161.122 (talk) 01:09, 1 August 2023 (UTC)

IP editor 108.26.161.122, I just started looking into this, and see that his father's obituary states that Ralph Grayson Trogdon given his nick-name Chieftain Heat Moon by the Missouri Boy Scouts by way of their honor society "Tribe of Mic-O-Say", a made-up tribe loosely based on the folklore of various tribes of Native Americans.

From the father's obituary: Starting in his early teens and throughout his life, Mr. Trogdon was active in the Boys Scouts of America. He received his Eagle Scout award in 1926, was scoutmaster of Troop 144 from 1936 to 1948, was named Chieftain Heat Moon in the Tribe of Mic-O-Say, and had received the Silver Beaver Award. (You may have to click on "see more" to read the full entry. So it seems that IP 50.39.165.242 who made the changes may very well be correct about his ancestry. Maybe the Osage is on his mother's side?

Pinging two members of the Wikiproject Indigenous peoples of North America for their thoughts and feedback and whether they have more info on the matter @Indigenous girl and @CorbieVreccan. Netherzone (talk) 01:50, 1 August 2023 (UTC)