In the American Grain is, as William Carlos Williams said, тАЬa study to try to find out for myself what the land of my more or less accidental birth might signify.тАЭ Although Williams wrote poetry and proseтАФand was a doctorтАФhe was not a historian. In this book, he applies a fresh, lyrical perspective to moments in AmericaтАЩs past. Beginning with the bloody Erik the Red, discoverer of Greenland and father of Leif Erikson, Williams revisits episodes from history like the destruction of Tenochtitlan, the Mayflower shipтАЩs journey to America, and the founding of Quebec, as well as the expeditions of explorers such as Christopher Columbus, Juan Ponce de Le├│n, Hernando de Soto, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Samuel de Champlain. He then moves along to events like the Salem witch trials, Daniel BooneтАЩs discovery of Kentucky, and Aaron BurrтАЩs romance with Jacataqua. He also discusses important figures such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Edgar Allan Poe, and Abraham Lincoln.
By deconstructing AmericaтАЩs history and rebuilding it with a poetтАЩs voice, Williams created тАЬa fundamental book, essential if one proposes to come to terms with American literatureтАЭ (The Times Literary Supplement).William Carlos Williams was an American author closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician, practicing both pediatrics and general medicine.