'Offers a lively, even combative, counter-thesis to many of the trite and possibly untrue notions about Southern writing.''Fred Chappell, North Carolina Poet Laureate 1997-2002'An excellent aid in studying Southern literature in general, and the effects of Celtic cultural folkways in particular.''Stuart Ferry, President, Caledonian Society of Baton Rouge, Louisiana'Indicative of the Celts' newfound respectability in America.''Michael Newton, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill'It will doubtless call for a re-examination of many prejudices.''L'Observateur Book Review'No serious college-level student of Southern literature should be without [it].''California Bookwatch, Midwest Book ReviewThis seminal book of literary criticism challenges the common perception that the culture of white Southerners springs from English, or Anglo-Norman, roots. Mr. Cantrell presents persuasive historical and literary evidence that it was the South's Celtic'Irish, Scots, Welsh, or Scots-Irish'settlers who had the greatest influence on Southern culture.Mr. Cantrell targets William Gilmore Simms as the most important antebellum Southern writer and devotes an entire chapter to his work. Among writers published after the Civil War, he focuses on Ellen Glasgow, Caroline Gordon, and the Agrarians. William Faulkner's writing receives special attention, especially the Gaelic influences on Thomas Sutpen in Absalom, Absalom! Unlike some literary theorists, Mr. Cantrell takes Gone with the Wind seriously as he dissects Margaret Mitchell's Southern epic. He uses the history of Irish Christianity in his explanation of Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away. Among contemporary writers, Pat Conroy and James Everett Kibler each merit a chapter for their use of their Celtic heritage in their books. Read Less