Digitized by the Internet Archive 2014 in https://archive.org/details/americanmythologOOblon American Mythologies American Mythologies MARSHALL BLONSKY New York Oxford Oxford University Press 1992 Oxford University Press Oxford NewYork Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi KualaLumpur Singapore HongKong Toyko Nairobi DaresSalaam CapeTown Melbourne Auckland andassociatedcompaniesin Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 by Marshall Blonsky Appreciation © 1992 by Umberto Eco Foreword © 1992 by Ronald Weintraub Portionsofthisbookwerepreviouslypublished inTheNewYorkTimesMagazine, TheWashingtonPost, VanityFair, Harper's, Lear's,AdvertisingAge, SevenDays, Graphis, andIDMagazine. PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc., 200MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NewYork 10016 OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, inaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Blonsky,Marshall. Americanmythologies/MarshallBlonsky. p. cm. Includesindex. ISBN0-19-505062-2 — — — I.UnitedStates Popular—culture History 20th—century. 2.UnitedStates Sociallifeandcustoms 1971- I.Title. E169.12.B58 1991 306.4'0973—dc20 91-7940 123456789 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper