<p><span class="deck"> To Henry James, as to his fellow expatriates Whistler and Sargent, the culture of the Old World was “vast, vague and dazzling,” yet they could never quite forget or abandon the New</span> </p>
<p><span style="background:white">To Owen Wister, the unlikely inventor of the cowboy legend, the trail rider was a survivor from the Middle Ages – “the last cavalier,” savior of the Anglo-Saxon race</span><span class="deck"> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"><span class="typestyle">One of America s truly great men—scientist, philosopher, and literary genius—forged his character in the throes of adversity</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> The city has been a lure for millions, but most of the great American minds have been appalled by its excesses. Here an eminent observer, who knows firsthand the city’s threat, surveys the subject.</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck">It took half a century for his critics to see his subjects as clearly as he did; but, today, he stands as America’s preeminent portraitist.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck"> From Fort Ticonderoga to the Plaza Hotel, from Appomattox Courthouse to Bugsy Siegel’s weird rose garden in Las Vegas, the present-day scene is enriched by knowledge of the American past</span> </p>
<p><span class="deck">The author walks us through literary Boston at its zenith. But Boston being what it is, we also come across the Revolution, ward politics, and the great fire.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">Fewer than half of O. Henry’s short stories actually take place in New York, but we still see the city through his eyes.</span></p>
