Book Description

In early 19th century Uncle Sam became the symbol/personification of the American government. To novelist, dramatist, critic, and professor of English at Columbia Univ, John Erskine (1879 - 1951), "The cartoon figure of Uncle Sam, the lanky gentleman with top-hat, long coat and boots, seems almost the portrait of a personality we have met. For some of us the face of this personality wears a benign expression; for others the features are mean." This novel fleshes out the caricature into a complete character, and in so doing, supplies the symbol of "the national termperament" with a biography. Erskine tells us that "He was the youngest of the family. All his life the others called his attention to the fact, as though he ought to do something about it, or at least be ashamed. As a child he was freckled and undersized. Later he grew quite tall, awkwardly so, but the freckles remained, along with the carroty hair. The others had a trick, not unkindly meant, of pointing out his lack of presence, not to say beauty."