Document Type

Book

Publication Date

1992

Abstract

Unlike Europeans, Americans inhabit a vast land with a short history. For that reason, we have always tended to mythologize our experience in terms of space rather than time. In his essay “Boxing the Compass,” Leslie Fiedler even goes so far as to argue that American Literature can be broken down into regional subgenres—the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western. Most readers, however, would recognize only two of these categories. Whether or not there is such a thing as an “Eastern” or a “Northern,” the South and the West clearly have been ahead—or perhaps behind—the rest of the country in cherishing a sense of sectional identity. The possibilities for song and story are particularly intriguing for writers who can claim citizenship in both regions. Such is the case of the East Texas native William Humphrey.

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