CHW:
Following through on Suellen’s mentions of Melville,
Pierre, and Ada, and with
the aid of her very stimulating essay The
Weed Exiles the Flower, I have become immersed in Pierre.
...Pierre’s
ancestry seems to me to include, as does much of Poe, something of the late
C18th English Gothic: it appears to me quite un-American, but “American”
requires definition. ..Thinking casually about immigrants
from the Old World, who came totally to embody
and project American personae, I thought of Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Bob Hope
[all English-born]....
JM:
I don't know what you mean by "American personae". Would Gore
Vidal fit? Immigrants, and I was now reminded of Willa Cather (
although I only read "My Antonia"), while still keeping a nostalgic foot in
their countries of origin, react to the new environment according to its
landscape, language and culture and the result, if we think of those
who chose America, cannot be considered as anything else as "American".
Take Shade, for example...