What the Writer's Daughter Did On He Day Off

     The American Literary Association is in town. For the price of 6 movie tickets you can spend four days listening to the latest on your favorite American authors. The speakers are members of fan clubs for the authors, such as the James Fenimore Cooper Society, the Washington Irving Society etc.
     Early yesterday, I got the skinny on Cooper, who named the cave in the photograph for his hero Natty Bumpo. I learned that Cooper lifted mightily from guides books for his European stories. Good Heavens, JFC is the Brad Vice of the 19th Century. If that don't beat all. Then I learned that he puts political ideas he despises in the mouths of his villains and varlets. Clever, that. And finally if a character speaks in Scots dialect, he's lower class, but that idea will be developed further by Professor Wegener, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia but has been to Glens Falls. Once.
     I have a detailed outline of my book due tuesday morning, but I can't resist going back for some Irving, Steinbeck and O'Neill. Sadly, I have to miss the session the session entitled "The Trouble Begins at 3:30: Cooper v. Twain."