As the title suggests, Poirier (distinguished professor emeritus, Rutgers University) believes that the US has been uncommonly hospitable to literary and artistic experimentation. With analytical daring and shrewd literary delicacy, he advances this theme in biographical and literary studies of Emerson, Whitman, Melville, Mailer, and other American writers. He also gives accounts of the significance of several artists and performers, and discusses myths of America by outside observers.