And he passed by and saw them. And he wondered if it was Eric. And what new world had they created with the Cortes, the Pizarros, yes, and the lords Howe, even the Washingtons. The Declaration of Independence: I wonder, he said, if it influenced the climate at all - I wonder if the seed, the sperm of it existed in Columbus. Was it authentic? Can one find a word there? Can something spontaneous be imprinted from scratch in these men who had met both in Scandinavia and among the Mongols?

In this brilliant example of American impressionism, which is an essay and at the same time a novel, chronicle, poem, reportage, and manifesto, Williams highlights the most "pure", the most "genuinely" American aspects in every field of public and private life, rejecting what remains attached to the European tradition and insisting on the creation of an "autonomous" American expression.