Another Elucidation

Erratum

        The Minnesota    College Press deeply regretsthe misspelling of the author's name    on the spine and title pageof her newly published book of verse.    The correct spelling is        Gussie Fauntleroy

Corrigendum

        With that reminder,    the whole thing comes back to me,somewhat ludicrously assisted    by the tony font calledLucida Blackletter (sure to be    the heroine of the first        Western I can write):

        she (Gussie, of course,    not Lucida) had just wona poetry contest: the reward,    publication and a sharedreading with two senior east-coast bards    of some repute: James Merrill        and Richard Howard.

        All of which, I guess,    came off as planned—James doinghis perfect mimesis of a man    inspired at that moment bysix or seven Muses at once (not    a phenomenon often        observed, I surmise,

        in Minnesota),and I attempting to bring

some effete Edwardian master    (and his mistress) to a lifequite alien to my audience    clearly innocent of such        neuro-fuzzy goings-on.

            "Well, James," I complained    on the way to the station(after all, we had been invited!),    "we weren't tarred and feathered, butI suspect it was only because    they believed we already        looked, and sounded, weird

        enough." "Richard dear,    don't you see they had their own    Miss Gutsy to set the tone? Besides,"    observed my preceptor inmidwestern morality, "this is    what happens when the Great Plains        meet the Great Fancies."