The author of
Blue Highways
and
PrairyErth
"takes us on a lifetime voyage full of imagery, insight and appreciation." —
Cleveland Plain Dealer
In his most ambitious journey ever,
William Least Heat-Moon
sets off aboard a small boat named Nikawa ("river horse" in Osage) from the Atlantic at New York Harbor in hopes of entering the Pacific near Astoria, Oregon. He and his companion, Pilotis, struggle to cover some 5,000 watery miles, often following in the wakes of our most famous explorers, from
Henry Hudson
to Lewis and Clark.
En route, the voyagers confront massive floods, dangerous weather, and their own doubts about whether they can complete the trip. But the hard days yield incomparable pleasures: generous strangers, landscapes untouched since Sacajawea saw them, riverscapes flowing with a lively past, and the growing belief that efforts to protect our lands and waters are beginning to pay off.
Teeming with humanity, humor, and high adventure,
River-Horse
is an unsentimental and original arteriogram of our nation at the millennium.