This week on The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with memoirist Fred Haefele, author of The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks (Bison Books).
About the book:
Of the sixty million pickups on U.S. highways today, just one in eight was bought for work purposes. The remaining fifty-four million are what truck dealers call “lifestyle purchases.” Does the pickup impulse spring from some deep, organic longing? For agrarian roots, for simpler times, for a driving experience larger than life?
The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks is a memoir about the complex role pickups have played in Fred Haefele’s life and in American culture at large. Growing up near the GM truck plant in Flint, Michigan, young Haefele was delighted by these centaur-like vehicles. In his adult life as an arborist, teacher, and father, pickups bore him through hard times and disaster, high adventure, triumph, and love. Through his tenure with twelve trucks, Haefele recounts his experiences with tree climbing and academia, masculinity and motor culture. For Haefele, pickup trucks hold a unique place in the American psyche—equal parts fantasy steed and dray horse, they’re avatars of the American spirit. The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks is, like his trucks, uniquely free-spirited: love story, blue-collar writer’s tale, and motor-head memoir.
This conversation has been edited for time.
About Fred:
Fred Haefele is a writer, teacher, and retired arborist. He is the author of the award-winning motorcycle memoir Rebuilding the Indian (Riverhead Books, 1998; Bison Books, 2005) and the non-fiction collection Extremophilia (Bangtail Press, 2012). Fred’s work has appeared in Outside, Wired, the New York Times Magazine, Salon.com, Montana Magazine, and other venues, and he has written documentaries for the PBS American Experience series. He lives in Missoula, Montana, with his wife, Caroline Patterson.
Mentioned in this episode:
Rebuilding the Indian by Fred Haefele (originally published by Riverhead Books; published in paperback by Bison Books)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig (Mariner Books)
Novelist Ken Kesey
Missoula, Montana-based author Caroline Patterson; listen to Lauren’s conversation with Caroline here!
Fred Haefele recommends:
North Woods by Daniel Mason (Penguin Random House)
What We Can Know by Ian McEwen (Alfred A. Knopf)
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Grove Press)
Isola by Allegra Goodman (Dial Press)
Delusions and Grandeur: Dreamers of the New West by Mark Sundeen (University of New Mexico Press)
Lauren Korn recommends:
The Essential Book of Pickup Trucks (Bison Books), Extremophilia (Bangtail Press), and Rebuilding the Indian (Riverhead Books; Bison Books) by Fred Haefele
Greyhound (Soft Skull Press) and Surrender: The Call of the American West (House of Anansi Press) by Joanna Pocock; listen to Lauren’s conversation with Joanna here!
Hole in the Sky by William Kittredge (Alfred A. Knopf)
Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness by Pete Fromm (Picador USA)
Crossing the Plains with Bruno by Annick Smith (Trinity University Press)
The Stone Sister by Caroline Patterson (Black Lawrence Press); listen to Lauren’s conversation with Caroline here!
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The Write Question team for the first part of this episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, co-producer, editor, and sound engineer. This episode is supported by Montana Book Co., located in downtown Helena, Montana, since 1978, offering new books for all ages, vinyl records, and community activism. For delivery in Helena and shipping online, visit mtbookco.com.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss.
Funding for The Write Question comes from members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans. A hat-tip to Humanities Montana for supporting this program since 2008.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
