In the old gallery there were...

disabused radicals. these types often make the best writers. mary mccarthy is phenomenal and not read enough.

delete thread, forgot all of this is already being discussed in a poll series that covers all authors of all time, forward and backward, and has already been much discussed. i was drunk, i am dumb, and soon i will be drunk and dumb again

the dominant literary style in America is careerism

Only in America?

Voted for bohemian expats.

Same

Bohemian expats, just barely edging out adventurers and romantic provincials

Christian Lorentzen is so eager to pigeonhole authors that he came up with no fewer than 31 pigeoholes. He missed one, which also happend to be the one he most comfortably fits: tedious hacks looking for a gimmick to get themselves published.

Hard to pick, went with romantic provincials

Disabused is a weaselly word but probably not the only weaselly word in this lot

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

where would mark twain fit? small town chroniclers? romantic provincials?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I don't quite get the point of this list. From the preceding sentence, it seems these are supposed to be ways that authors mythologized themselves, but a lot of these don't seem to make a lot of sense from that angle. Like did Pound really mythologize himself as a crank? Did Harriet Beecher Stowe try to mythologize herself as an abolitionist? It seems the list kind of looses its moorings and becomes just a facile compendium of the images attached to well-known writers, suitable for displaying possession of a liberal education, if the name should come up in a cocktail party conversation.

where would mark twain fit? small town chroniclers? romantic provincials?

towering American authors of deceptive simplicity and great depth and complexity!

yeah exactly

Just wait til everyone’s searching for this thread in 20 years, unable to find it. “Good luck!” I’ll say