School & Community News

Edgar Ailor III, Class of 64 -- our book, Blue Highways Revisited, was published

In 1978, William Least Heat-Moon made a 14,000-mile journey on the back roads of America, visiting 38 states along the way. In 1982, the popular Blue Highways, chronicling his adventures, was published. Three decades later, Edgar Ailor III and his son, Edgar IV, retraced and photographed Heat-Moon’s route, culminating in Blue Highways Revisited, released for publication in May 2012, on the thirtieth anniversary of Blue Highways. The Ailors capture once more the local color and beauty of the back roads, cafes, taverns, and people of Heat-Moon’s original journey. A foreword by Heat-Moon notes, “The photographs, often with amazing accuracy, capture my verbal images and the spirit of the book. Taking the journey again through these pictures, I have been intrigued and even somewhat reassured that America is changing not quite so destructively as often it can seem. The Blue Highways Revisited photographs, happily, reveal a recognizable continuity – (but for how much longer who can say?) – and I’m glad the Ailors have recorded so much of Blue Highways while many of the people and places are yet with us.”