Title

River-horse : the logbook of a boat across America

Description

The author sets out from New York City to sail his boat across the United States.

Identifier

843666

395636264

Creator

Heat Moon, William Least

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1999

Program air date: January 16, 2000

Publisher

Houghton Mifflin

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front endpapers and half title page contain references to the conditions they encountered, to incidents that occurred on the trip, to some of the people the author and his companions met along the way. These questions are part of the notes: "What did you use the canoe for?" -- How did you prepare for the trip?" -- "How many people did you see on the river?" -- Where was it the busiest?" -- "Did you keep a diary?" -- "Army Corps of Engineers: how were they involved?" -- "What was the Doctor Robert?" -- "How far could you go on a tank of gas?" -- "81 chapters / 81 days on [the] water - which one or two would you like to do over?" -- "Did you drive the route the year before the trip?" -- "How did your trip relate to Lewis and Clark?" -- "What was the Grand Terminator (end the trip) - how often did you think you had met him?" -- "How many in your party?" -- Notes on back endpapers refer to the Ohio, Missouri, Mississippi and Snake Rivers, Interstate I-90, a tornado they encountered, and contain short remarks on other people the author met on this journey. These quotes and additional questions are also included: "Omaha to Portland, OR: 3000 miles, no real cities between." -- "What was the depth and width of the river?" -- "Isolation is more than a boon to a writer's effort - it's a near necessity." -- "5288 watery miles, 6 degrees of latitude, 48 of longitude: 44 miles a day; portaged around 89 dams." -- "How many locks did you have to go through?" -- "No on-board toilet." - "What about food?" -- "Without the Ohio and Missouri - all people west of [the] Mississippi might speak Spanish." -- "I have driven more than a million miles across America - never loved a road." -- "When did you think you wouldn't make it?" -- "How much did you do along the route the year before?" -- "Where was the nastiest weather?" -- "What are you going to do with 'Nikawa'?" -- "Did you ever keep running at night?" -- "We don't read a lot about where you stayed." -- "Water folk "have the notion that a river is just wet land"." -- ""Never had I experienced such a quickly gone six weeks."" -- "I insisted on keeping water underneath instead of portaging around." -- "I was [the] only one to make the whole trip." -- "How much did the whole trip cost?" -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent phrases throughout the book. -- Examples: p. 21: "Yet, at the very time we were climbing the Hudson, the 104th Congress, driven by right-wing extremists, was trying to undo the Clean Water Act, a strange and heinous effort given the effectiveness the law has had in improving American waters." -- p. 62: "Yet in truth the Erie Canal is probably cleaner today than ever, a result of wise federal and state environmental regulations - not to mention those rascal zebra mussels." -- p. 264: "(The American West is today, of course, a bastion of resistance to anything emanating from Washington - except subsidy checks - and those who yelp the loudest about federal "intrusion" are the grandchildren of those who overran aboriginal lands. Right-wing militias are an ironic amusement to Indians.)" -- p. 265: "These [Tetons] are the vilest miscreants of the savage race [and] must ever remain he pirates of the Missouri until such measures are pursued by our government as will make them feel a dependence on its will for their supply of merchandise."

Subject

"Heat Moon, William Least--Travel--United States."

"Inland navigation--United States."

"Boats and boating--United States."

"Dories (Boats)--United States."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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