Rambling on Saint Martin

Gérard M. Hunt Is A Man Without A Country Trying To Piece Together In Essays Editorials And Scholarship A Country Of His Own From Three Quite Separate Nations: French Colonial By Birth And Upbringing; United States By Military Service And Higher Education; And Canada By Profession In Teaching And Scholarship. The Three Have By No Means Come Together In A Single National Unity. His Homing Tendency Seems To Be Towards St. Martin But St. Martin Is Itself An Amalgam - A Clump Of Volcanic Earth Still Divided For No Good Reason Between Two Independent Sovereigns Thousands Of Miles Away. He Is A Unitary Citizen Without An Integrated Polity. ( . . . ) Many Of Gérard'S Essays Are Grave And Penetrating Trials. Many Are Sentimental - Catching Up With Childhood Comrades Sharing Grief Over A Lost Friend Or Relative. Several Of These Discourses Are Critiques Of The Wayward Tendencies Of French Efforts To Govern Saint-Martin From Paris Through Guadeloupe. The Most Serious And Extensive Of Essays Aim At Encouraging A Greater Sense Of Historical Awareness And Of Community Solidarity Among St. Martiners . . . From Foreword To Rambling On Saint Martin By Theodore J. Lowi