AE Vol2. Issue 9 - Preview

A me rican Es s e nc e

American Essence

SEPTEMBER 2022

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SEPTEMBER 2022

Conquering Iditarod One man, 11 dogs, 1,000 miles of Alaskan wilderness

Enchanting Big Sur This rugged stretch of California coast is not just a destination, but a state of mind

VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 9

Freedom to Dance Having lost his father to brutal persecution in China, Steven Wang discovered his purpose in America: telling the stories of the voiceless on stage

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Contents Features 10 | Finding Meaning on the Dance Stage World-class dancer Steven Wang discovered in America a safe refuge to tell the stories of the persecuted and share the true meaning of his art.

16 | Why I Love America

82 40 | Bavarian Spirit

Robert Snodgres reflects on his mother’s beautiful, and tragic, wartime love story that tells of the sacrifices made for our great nation.

A jovial tradition brought to America

by German immigrants, Oktoberfest is a time for beer and all things Bavarian. Here’s how to join in on the celebrations.

18 | Iditarod Champion

42 | The Salmon Sisters

24 | Escaping the Khmer Rouge

52 | A Lesson in Dedication

Brent Sass on how the incredible trust between him and his sled dogs allowed them to race through 1,000 miles of unforgiving Alaskan terrain.

Our chief editor recounts the amazing tale of her father’s courageous escape from communist capture to build a new life in the land of the free.

26 | A Higher Calling

Master penman Jake Weidmann is bringing traditional calligraphy back with faith-inspired creations.

30 | ‘Travel Explore Discover’

A young entrepreneur turned her dream into reality with a creative board game that helps kids discover the world around them.

Meet the sister duo dedicated to supplying America with fresh, sustainable seafood harvested from the bountiful waters of Alaska.

What began as an ordinary family trip to the circus turned out to be more than met the eye.

56 | Telltale Signs

Did you know that handwriting can give away personality traits? We take a look at the signatures of some of America’s most notable figures, for revealing details.

History 58 | The Oft-Forgotten Founding

Expertly designed and impeccably tailored, each hand-sewn suit at Chicagobased Oxxford Clothes is an ode to heritage and Old-World craftsmanship.

Father From serving as America’s first chief justice to co-authoring the Federalist Papers, John Jay’s indelible contributions helped safeguard our young nation.

36 | It Takes a Family

62 | Battle of Flamborough Head

32 | The Perfect Fit

James Beard award-winning chef Chris Hastings is blazing a trail with an abundance of love and support from his family.

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How John Paul Jones, considered the father of the American Navy, triumphed in one of the most memorable marine conflicts of the Revolutionary War.

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The Great Outdoors 112 | Pure Gold

Once the site of America’s first major gold rush, Dahlonega, Georgia, is now a mountain retreat buzzing with yearround festivities.

118 | A Piece of Paradise

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70 | Lyricist of Solace

Forever changed by the two women he loved and lost, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is famed for his ability to convey beauty and strength amid despair.

74 | Devoted First Lady

Undaunted by numerous challenges, and possessing an optimistic and warmhearted nature, First Lady Julia Dent Grant was an anchor for her husband, Ulysses.

90 | Special Delivery

From the Grand Canyon’s mule-delivered packages to Missouri’s limestone post office, learn some fun facts about our beloved U.S. Postal Service.

92 | Reading Corner

An independent bookstore in smalltown Mississippi unites not just book lovers, but the whole community.

96 | Book Recommender

82 | Flying Ace

98 | Painting History

86 | Of Hedgerows and

104 | The Breakers

Propelled to celebrity status by his skill and courage in combat, Kiffin Rockwell was the first American aviator to shoot down an enemy aircraft in World War I. Fortifications Faced with an unforeseen problem during the Normandy Invasion, American servicemen came up with ingenious ways to bulldoze through enemy lines.

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Arts & Letters

78 | Bettering the Lives of the

Forsaken With immense courage and ingenuity, 19th-century journalist Nellie Bly went undercover to expose the abusive conditions inside a New York insane asylum.

Renowned for its wild and unfettered beauty, California’s Big Sur has been a muse for generations of artists.

Find your next read: A national bestseller on the legacy of President James Garfield and the medical drama behind his assassination; and an action-packed nonfiction of defiance and triumph in the Pacific War. The son of German political refugees, painter Emanuel Leutze created exquisite testaments to his love for America and the freedom it embodies.

Known as the “crown jewel” of Newport, Rhode Island, the Vanderbilts’ opulent summer villa is a magnificent homage to the Italian Renaissance.

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Editor’s Note Dear Readers,

C

Your personal story of family and faith.

Your Family Cross™

Set with exquisite diamonds on one side and the birthstones of family members on the side worn closest to the heart. This unique treasure is one that will instantly become a precious heirloom.

ourage comes in many forms—physical endurance, mental toughness, and moral fiber made of steel.

In this issue, we feature dancer Steven Wang (page 10), whose family members were persecuted for their religious beliefs in his homeland of China. In America, he found freedom of belief, and safety—but also something deeper. It was here, through Shen Yun Performing Arts, that he found the true meaning of his art, drawing upon a 5,000-year-old heritage starkly different from the communist regime’s, one based on pure goodness and beauty. Over the years, the company’s storytelling on stage has moved audiences to tears.

I can only reflect with gratitude that America has been so welcome to those seeking refuge from persecution. My father walked for a harrowing 22 days through the jungle from Cambodia to Thailand (page 24), escaping the murderous Khmer Rouge, before eventually making a new home in America. The force that propelled him forward through hunger and sickness was his determination to tell the truth to a world unaware of the atrocities being committed. His courage has been an example to all those he has met.

America’s history is similarly full of courageous men and women who, through acts great or small, have over time had ripple effects on generations.

God bless America. It truly is the home of the brave.

Editor-In-Chief Channaly Philipp Editor@AmericanEssence.net

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TAI LGATE LIKE A PRO:

Essential Gear for an Extraordinary Pre-Game Party Tailgating started out as a way to amp up the excitement for the big game, but it’s now a main event itself. Gather the family and friends, and let’s celebrate WRITTEN BY

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The Perfect Coverage Even the nicest “easy set-up” tent can become annoying to deal with after a while; not to mention, it’s probably not sized for a stadium parking space.

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Game Day Grilling Coleman’s Portable Party Grill looks like a charcoal grill, but it uses propane, so you get all your favorite grilled foods cooked quickly and without the mess. The PerfectFlow propane pressure regulator ensures consistent performance even in extreme conditions. $69.99 at Coleman.com

Toasty Warm Toes Unless you’re a Miami Dolphins fan, you’ll want to bring along a Mr. Heater Buddy Portable Heater sometime during the season. The 4,000–9,000 BTU will keep your group cozy and comfortable under tents up to 255 square feet in size. $89.99 at Cabelas.com

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True or False

1.

America’s biggest export around the world is Hollywood entertainment.

2.

Louisville Slugger baseball bats are no longer made in Louisville, Kentucky, since a Finnish company acquired the rights to the brand in 2015.

3.

How Well Do You Know American Industry?

Test Your Knowledge WRITTEN BY

Andrew Benson Brown

Fill-in-the-Blank

5.

The most recognizable logo on Earth is the _______________, symbol of the highly successful fastfood chain, founded in California in 1940.

6.

The U.S. poultry industry’s combined inventory of turkeys, ducks, and guineas outnumbers its chickens.

As a result of manufacturing for the war effort, the _______________ brand of tractors finally overtook horsepower on American farms after World War II.

4.

7.

Before Play-Doh was marketed as a children’s toy, it was used as a wallpaper cleaner.

Until Toyota started beating its sales figures, _______________ was the world’s largest automaker for almost 80 years.

Multiple Choice

8.

The top three U.S. farm products are: A. chicken, corn, and wheat B. beef, corn, and soybeans C. beef, dairy, and hay D. hog meat, soybeans, and cotton

9.

Which of the following products is NOT made in America?

A. Crayola crayons B. French’s mustard C. Folgers ground coffee D. Barbie dolls

10.

In 1880, the United States produced 85 percent of the world’s crude oil, contributing to its emergence as a major economic power. By 2021, this number had fallen to: A. 14 percent B. 24 percent C. 35 percent D. 55 percent ISSU E 9 | S E P T E M B ER 2 0 2 2

Answers to the quiz on pg 127

Features | Artist

Shen Yun Performing Arts principal dancer Steven Wang, at High Point State Park in New Jersey.

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Artists | Features

The True

Power of

Dance

In America, world-class dancer Steven Wang discovered the true depth of his art—and its ability to tell inspiring stories WRITTEN BY

I

t had been a few months since Steven Wang last spoke to his parents, located halfway across the world in China. He knew that every time he phoned, the Chinese authorities would be listening in via wiretapping, so he avoided calling too often.

He started by asking simple questions, the way he always did. In these conversations, Wang couldn’t really share with his parents about his new life in America or about his recent experiences performing as a principal dancer at world-renowned theaters. The information could become ammunition for the Chinese regime, which keeps a watchful eye on those like Wang and his family who have been labeled enemies of the state because of their faith.

Wang’s mother and father have been repeatedly arrested and have spent intermittent time in jail because of their belief in a meditation practice called Falun Dafa, a self-cultivation discipline with meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. In 1999, the Chinese communist regime outlawed the practice amid the movement’s rapidly growing popularity. Across the country, hundreds of thousands were rounded up and detained, often tortured while imprisoned.

On a fateful day in November 2009, Wang’s mother told him that his father had passed away.

After his last imprisonment in 2003, his health drastically deteriorated—no doubt due to torture. He died of kidney failure in September 2009.

“That day, I hid inside an empty warehouse and ISSU E 9 | S E P T E M B ER 2 0 2 2

Annie Wu

cried by myself for a long time,” Wang said. He regretted not being able to see his father one last time.

But Wang knew he had a greater mission at stake: In the land of freedom, he would tell the stories of millions like his parents who still face persecution and possibly mortal danger because of their refusal to give up their faith. Through the language of dance, Wang would convey the resilience and courage that many Falun Dafa adherents embody.

“I would think, when my father was in prison, did he experience similar torture? I imagined how a practitioner, or my father, would endure such suffering.” He would then try to display that suffering onstage.

Most recently, Wang learned that his mother was detained on July 7, 2022, at the Changsha No. 4 Women’s Detention Center, likely for distributing pamphlets about Falun Dafa, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center, which tracks persecution cases.

Wang later came to the realization that he also faced a form of persecution: the burden of uncertainty, invisible pressure, and the suffering of his loved ones. He would try to channel the emotions he felt via dance. “I hope people will understand the truth,” he said.

A Deeper Meaning Behind Dance Wang was intrigued by dance at a young age. He grew up in Hunan Province, a place known for producing top-level gymnastics athletes. But 11

BELOW Snapshots from Wang’s childhood in China.

He began dance training at 9 years old. On the right, he’s pictured with his mother and two sisters.

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Artists | Features

training in gymnastics was grueling, and somehow, young Wang had a gut feeling that the sport was not for him. In 1996, when he was about 9 years old, Wang told his parents he wanted to give dance a try. His father brought him to a local arts center. When he saw the group of young classmates in their dance outfits, he felt it was the right place. Wang excelled in his class and eventually got accepted into a professional dance academy in Chongqing City—hundreds of miles away—for secondary school.

Shortly after he started dancing, Wang’s parents began practicing Falun Dafa. The practice had spread quickly across the country, with nearly 100 million adherents by the late 1990s.

Wang noticed a change in his parents: They were no longer arguing the way they used to, and his father’s diabetes symptoms had disappeared.

In July 1999, the communist regime initiated its persecution campaign against Falun Dafa. Wang was too young to fully comprehend it and was far away from home. But he knew that people like his parents were being arrested and jailed because of their faith. During the 2001 Lunar New Year holiday, Wang’s parents were both arrested. He

and his three elder sisters were left at home alone.

“We were like orphans,” he recalled.

Seeing that the children had no one to take care of them, Wang’s aunt and uncle stayed with them for the holiday. “They pitied us and decided not to go back to their hometowns for [Lunar] New Year and stayed with us. It left a deep impression on me. I felt for the first time that our family wasn’t whole,” Wang said.

Later that year, Wang and his sisters visited their father in prison. The elder Wang was seated behind a clear barricade as guards watched intently behind him. Detainees were not allowed to talk; they could only write down messages to their visitors on a chalkboard. “He looked like skin covering bones. He looked very weak.” It was a memory Wang would never forget.

At boarding school, he was shielded from the realities of the Chinese regime’s persecution.

Meanwhile, his mother and father tried to evade being arrested again. In 2008, while Wang was enrolled at a dance college in Chongqing, his mother found out about Shen Yun Performing Arts, a burgeoning performing arts company centered on an ancient art form called classical

vvv Through the stories of legendary heroes and men of great virtue from Chinese history, Wang learned what true kindness, humility, and trustworthiness mean.

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Jake Weidmann believes art can serve as a testament to the beauty of God’s creations.

Calligraphy’s Renaissance 26

Jake Weidmann is reviving the fine art of calligraphy and a traditional, faith-based approach to art WRITTEN BY

Tara dos Santos

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Craftsmanship | Features

BELOW Weidmann also does woodcarvings, like this one, titled “The Sojourner’s Rose.”

B

efore putting pen to paper, Jake Weidmann listens to classical music to calm his heart and clear his mind.

The slightest tension would stifle the flow of the pen’s dance. The smallest tremor would create a flaw in the fluid ink flourishes.

Calligraphy in its highest form is a fine art, and Weidmann is one of the few people in the world who have mastered it. He is a master penman, one of 16 certified by the International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of Handwriting (IAMPETH). “You don’t practice until you get it right; you practice it until you can’t get it wrong,” he said. Each stroke must be perfect, or the whole work is blemished. “I have always had a deep love for calligraphy— and really handwriting more broadly,” said Weidmann. “I grew up admiring [my mother’s] cursive handwriting: how beautiful the letters flowed together, the lean of the writing across the page that looked like falling rain.”

after a house fire left him with little more than paper, pencil, and imagination. “Being able to create new worlds when my world was in shambles was a beautiful gift from God,” said Weidmann.

Since then, he has dedicated his life to beauty in all its manifestations: calligraphy, painting, sculpture, and other material arts, to name a few. He has also studied acting, so as to embody the artistry of speech and expression; and psychology, in order to appreciate the palette of human emotions that give people color. Bodybuilding, sculpting his own person into a fine form, has been a pursuit as well. He’s an artist through and through.

With this holistic approach to artistry, Weidmann first started practicing penmanship so that even his daily handwriting would be beauti-

ful. A college classmate of his noticed, and she commissioned him to write up her wedding invitations. That set Weidmann to studying calligraphy in his spare time. He wrote his college assignments in calligraphy scripts to practice. Unsatisfied with the tools available to him at his local arts shop, he learned to work a lathe (a machine that shapes materials) and made his own pen holders (he also patented the design he sells today as Weidmann’s Ergonomic Oblique Penholder).

It was 2011 when he became one of only 11 IAMPETH-certified master penmen in the world. Now there are 16, and interest in the art seems to be growing. “When I joined, there were very few people who were interested in calligraphy,” said Weidmann. The golden age of penmanship was from approximately the late 1800s to the

An Artist in the Making Weidmann started to think of himself as an artist when he was 6 years old,

RIGHT Weidmann’s rendering of the lyrics to the hymn “It Is Well With My Soul,” written by Horatio Spafford in 1873.

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Features | Craftsmanship

1930s, he said, when penmen were in high demand to write up certificates, design cards, and do all sorts of business-related functions. The typewriter made much of their work obsolete. Now, without its purely utilitarian function, penmanship is preserved in the realm of fine art.

“It is definitely seeing a renaissance of sorts,” said Weidmann. “There are so many people around the world who are learning calligraphy ... in every form, whether it be some of the more English forms like Old English, or German forms like Fraktur. Then there are a lot of people who have developed a deep love for ornamental penmanship, the true American style of penmanship. There’s a large association in China and Japan studying American heritage handwriting.”

Weidmann uses both European and American styles, but he draws special inspiration from one of the fathers of American ornamental penmanship.

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ABOVE LEFT

Weidmann is one of fewer than a dozen certified master penmen in the world.

Weidmann paints a soaring North American nuthatch bird.

ABOVE

ABOVE RIGHT “Of Smoke and Sea,” a pencil and charcoal drawing of an old sailor reminiscing about his adventures at sea.

AMERI CAN ESSE NCE

Craftsmanship | Features

An All-American, Faith-Based Art Platt Rogers Spencer created the Spencerian script, a style of cursive writing that became popular in the 19th century. The script was inspired by the beauty of America’s Midwest, Weidmann explained, particularly in the vicinity of Lake Geneva in Wisconsin, where Spencer lived. “[He was] inspired by the lean of the wheat blowing in the wind,” said Weidmann.

“He found a lot of inspiration in the waves on Lake Geneva, the flowing water that he saw in the streams by his house, or the round rocks he found on the lake shores. Those round rocks became the beloved oval shape that he put into the writing.” Spencer’s script was lighter and lacier than the Old World scripts popular at the time.

It required fewer trips to the inkwell, for example, than English Roundhand (the script used for the American Declaration of Independence).

“At its core, it had this beautiful, deep theology,” said Weidmann. “Spencer ISSU E 9 | S E P T E M B ER 2 0 2 2

vvv He believes art’s greatest power is its ability to point to what is higher, to the divine. believed that God, as the originator of all beauty, had instilled that beauty in nature. And so, if he derives inspiration for his writing from nature, then he’d have the beauty of God in his own hand.”

Weidmann’s philosophy is similar. “My faith is integral to everything I do as an artist, and I believe that one of the primary responsibilities of the artist is to not make new worlds, but to make this world new—to really open the viewer’s eye to the beauty of God that is all around us,” he said.

By contrast, modern art does not point to anything beyond, to anything higher, Weidmann said. Yet he believes

art’s greatest power is its ability to point to what is higher, to the divine. Modern art has done away with representation, he said. It tells us to see but paint on canvas: art for art’s sake. Instead of being a universal language of beauty, Weidmann feels it has become gibberish intelligible only to a few—and polluted by shock tactics.

Reviving a traditional approach to art does not mean simply reproducing the style of the past, Weidmann said.

Innovation still has its place. His art uses traditional techniques to produce a realism he has always reveled in as almost being magical—making him an illusionist. His unique style mixes calligraphy with painting and drawing.

Calligraphy-inspired ink flourishes extend from the tips of a sparrow’s wings, a zebra’s stripes, or a swan’s reflection on rippling water. Words and images combine. Weidmann said, “While a picture is worth a thousand words, I use calligraphy when I am tired of speaking vaguely.” • 29

Founding Fathers | History

A Peaceful Warrior for the Constitution How John Jay, the first chief justice and contributor to the Federalist Papers, helped establish the foundation of our American republic

I

WRITTEN BY

n 1782, John Jay traveled to Paris with Benjamin Franklin and John Adams to discuss peace terms with the British. He, in particular, fought for British recognition of the United States and for all of the land east of the Mississippi, doubling the size of the nation.

But doubling the nation was only a fraction of his contributions to establish, solidify, and ensure the safety of the newborn country.

While in Paris, and with the help of his wife, he befriended the Marquis de Lafayette, Angelica Schuyler, and other important figures living in France. These ties were vital to the relationship between the United States and France, the young country’s only ally during the Revolution. Jay prevented France and Great Britain from having their own secret negotiations that would have put fledgling America at a great disadvantage. After the negotiations in Paris, Jay and his family returned to New York, where he helped build the United States government.

LEFT “John Jay” by Gilbert Stuart, 1794.

RIGHT The second page of the Treaty of Paris, signed

by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay of the United States and David Hartley of the British Parliament on Sept. 3, 1783.

The Jay Legacy for America Three generations of the Jay family embodied the quintessential American ideals, none more so than John. John Jay was born in New York in 1745.

His grandfather had come to America seeking freedom from religious persecution in France, and he built a life for himself as a merchant. Jay’s father continued in the trade, building his wealth and providing for his family, succeeding in the American dream. John Jay would continue this legacy

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Sydney Slack

through many years of service to the fledgling United States of America.

Jay grew up in New York and attended King’s College, now Columbia University. He graduated with a law degree, but he did not practice law for very long. In 1774, Jay was elected to represent New York in the First Continental Congress, the same year he married Sarah Livingston. Much like Benjamin Franklin, Jay first strove for peace and negotiation with Great Britain. However, as war became inevitable, Jay chose loyalty to the interests of the United States and dedicated himself to its freedom. Early in the Revolution, he served as president of the Second Continental Congress, the provisional government for the 13 Colonies.

As a Diplomat In 1779, Jay made a perilous journey to Spain with his wife. Horrible storms required their ship to stop in the Caribbean for repairs; then, a British ship chased after them, attempting to kidnap Jay as they approached the Spanish coast.

He had been chosen as the diplomat to Spain, seeking financial aid for the Revolutionary War. However, he had little success garnering support from the Spanish government, a monarchy that did not want to support revolution, which might ultimately be turned against it. So dire was the situation in America that Jay’s not winning the support of Spain meant that his salary could not be paid. Yet he did not complain and remained dedicated 59

Section | Overline

to his work, asking only enough for him and his wife to live in their modest Madrid apartment.

In 1794, Jay was sent back across the Atlantic to negotiate with the British once more. They were not upholding agreements made at the end of the Revolution, such as to vacate North American bases in the United States and to cease blocking American exports. The British Royal Navy had also captured and forced many American merchants into service while at sea. People on both sides of the Atlantic were ready to go back to war to settle these debates. Jay’s Treaty, as it is known colloquially, only addressed a few of those issues.

He failed to make any progress on British impressment of American sailors and even granted the British the ability to take French goods off American ships without payment. The treaty was, therefore, widely unpopular with the public, who believed Jay had been too lenient with Britain.

Afterward, Jay’s popularity plummeted.

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However, Jay’s negotiations, supported by George Washington, provided temporary appeasement with the British and allowed the United States time to recover from the Revolutionary War and establish itself in the world. This valuable time allowed the nation to prepare for what would eventually become the War of 1812, when unaddressed disagreements with Great Britain would once again be settled with violence.

Laying the Groundwork for the Constitution and Judiciary Powers Between missions abroad, in 1787, Jay wrote five of the Federalist Papers supporting the ratification of the Constitution. The first four papers he contributed all concerned the same topic: dangers from foreign force and influence. In these articles, Jay argued against Americans who saw the inefficiency of the Articles of Confederation and wanted to dissolve the United States into

ABOVE Unfinished oil sketch of “American Commissioners of the Preliminary Peace Agreement With Great Britain” by Benjamin West, 1783 to 1784.

From left to right: John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, and William Temple Franklin.

RIGHT 1894 lithograph of the first eight chief justices of the United States: John Jay, John Rutledge, Oliver Ellsworth, John Marshall, Roger Brook Taney, Salmon Portland Chase, Morrison R. Waite, and Melville W. Fuller.

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History | World War II

American Ingenuity

Clears a Path to Freedom Facing seemingly impenetrable German fortifications during the Normandy Invasion, regular GIs thought of innovative ways to plow through enemy lines

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WRITTEN BY

y the evening of June 6, 1944, American, Canadian, and British forces had carved a toehold on the beaches of Normandy in northern France—the beginning of the end of Nazi domination of Europe. Yet as the Allied soldiers scrambled up the shingle beach and burst over the cliffs and bluffs overlooking the five landing beaches, they ran up against an unanticipated obstacle: the landscape of Normandy itself.

Northern France, like most of Europe, has been continuously occupied by humanity for millennia, and the picturesque, gentle, roll-

Allen Shoff

ing hills and small, wooded groves of northern France have long been divided into cultivated fields. The terrain as a whole, traditionally called “bocage,” is traced by idyllic sunken lanes, and ancient hedgerows, some centuries old, flank these lanes. Hedges—dutifully and carefully tended by generations of farmers as a natural fence for livestock—can rise 10 or more feet into the air, and the thorny branches and brambles interlace so effectively as to prevent the passage of a determined bull or goat, let alone a man.

But the Germans had prepared for this moment.

Near Barenton, Normandy, three Allied armored vehicles from the U.S. 2nd Armored Division. In the foreground, the tank is equipped with a hedgerow plow.

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World War II | History

vvv Hedges—dutifully and carefully tended by generations of farmers as a natural fence for livestock—can rise 10 or more feet into the air.

zying maze of fields and woods that concealed German positions. It seemed that Allied forces would simply have to slog through.

A soldier makes a plowshare to affix to a tank for plowing hedgerows in Normandy.

ABOVE

A Culin hedgerow cutter made from German blocks (landing obstructions) is affixed to a light tank.

ABOVE RIGHT

Natural Fortresses Stephen Ambrose, in his seminal work “Citizen Soldiers,” recounted how there were 14 hedgelined fields per kilometer, each of which met the roads at irregular angles and often had only a single entrance. The Germans had turned many of the tens of thousands of hedgerows in Normandy into veritable fortresses, bristling with machine guns and mortars.

What’s worse, American combat doctrine simply fell apart in the narrow, leafy confines of the sunken lanes between hedgerows. Tanks couldn’t communicate with infantry, and flanking maneuvers or attempts to bypass the strongpoints met pre-sited artillery or mortar fire.

Even American air power—by this point ascendant over the bloodied Luftwaffe—proved less effective than expected when faced with the diz-

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Can-Do and Make-Do But the American character—forged in the can-do attitude of the frontier—didn’t lend itself well to resignation. The ranks of the American armed forces swelled with GIs from every walk of life from coast to coast, and without needing direction or commands from officers, they started working the problem from the lowliest private on up. Perhaps it was a New Jersey machinist’s son, or a mechanic from the Bronx, who first thought to weld bulldozer blades to the front of the M4 Sherman, the main tank available to Allied forces.

They worked well: a good head of steam down a sunken lane and a Sherman could pierce its way through the hedge, its main turret barking at the German machine gun emplacements exposed in enfilade.

But with bulldozer blades in short supply, and orders out to ship all command could find to the Western Front, the men on the front line had to innovate again. A Sgt. Curtis Culin was credited with developing what amounted to a giant lawnmower blade, the “Culin Cutter,” which he ingeniously crafted from the very Czech hedgehogs— anti-tank steel joists, often fitted with mines—that the Germans had placed on the beaches to foil Allied tank landings.

But while many of the tanks were eventually outfitted with these and other makeshift hedge-cutters, the soldiers needed even more power to defeat the sturdiest hedge fortresses.

Perhaps next it was a miner, fresh from the mine shafts of Idaho’s Silver Valley, who repurposed explosives into hedge-clearing charges.

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An Immigrant’s

Gift to America 98

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“Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emanuel Leutze, 1851. Oil on canvas.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Inspired by the freedom of his adopted country, German-American artist Emanuel Leutze painted the most iconic scenes of our nation’s history WRITTEN BY

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Bob Kirchman

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LEFT Graphite sketch of “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way”

by Emanuel Leutze, 1862.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

I

t is the night of December 25, 1776, and ice fills the Delaware River. The men of the Continental Army shiver as they cross under cover of night, on their way to engage Hessian troops at Trenton, New Jersey. Standing in the boat is a resolute George Washington, face steeled for the battle to come. Before the men boarded the boats, Washington had officers read to his soldiers the words from Thomas Paine’s “The American Crisis,” written only days before on December 23, 1776. The opening paragraph of the pamphlet reads, These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated.

Painted in 1851 by Emanuel Leutze, “Washington Crossing the Delaware” immortalizes the image of the ragtag Continental Army going forth from Valley Forge to engage the forces of the then greatest nation in the world. It is, rightly so, one of the most often reproduced images from American history. Open any good textbook on the subject, and it is there. Leutze’s portrait of Washington still evokes wonder today.

A century after its creation, American artist Norman Rockwell even painted a “painting within a painting” of this iconic artwork for a 1951 Saturday Evening Post cover. In Rockwell’s painting, a group of schoolchildren and their teacher stand in front of Leutze’s great painting in admiration. Here, Rockwell pays homage to “Washington Crossing the Delaware” and its priceless illumination of our history for many generations.

This was not Leutze’s first painting of this scene. His original painting of the historic crossing, in 1850, became part of the collection of the Künsthalle in Bremen, Germany. It was destroyed by an Allied bombing raid in 1942. In fact, this first masterful work almost didn’t even make it out of his studio; it was damaged by fire in 1850 when his studio burned. Leutze restored the original, and it is the one that remained in Germany until its destruction.

Leutze did two more renderings of the scene.

One is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. After its New York exhibition in 1851, the painting was purchased by a private collector but was subsequently given to the museum in 1897. The other rendering found its way to the West Wing of the White House until it was sold to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, Minnesota, in 2015.

There is a strong allegorical component to the painting: Washington’s determined stance, the triangular composition, and the lightening sky. In truth, this scene is not completely accurate. Idealized, this painting remains a testimony to the valor of Washington and the Continental Army. It was reported to be a dark, wretched night with freezing precipitation (ice and snow)

American Painters | Arts & Letters

vvv There is a strong allegorical component to the painting: Washington’s determined stance, the triangular composition, and the lightening sky. drenching the men in the boats. The Durham boats Washington actually used were bigger than Leutze had depicted. If Washington had actually stood in a boat that size, he would likely have fallen into the water. In the larger boats, the men might indeed have stood, braced against the swells, to avoid contact with the cold bottom of the craft.

A few men actually did fall overboard that night, but no one perished in the river. Several men did die from exposure on the march to surprise the Hessians. The surprise worked, however, and Washington’s men captured 900 soldiers, which

turned the course of the war. The event, and Leutze’s later depiction of it, would find their permanent place in the American memory. Leutze also painted a companion work, “Washington Rallying the Troops at Monmouth,” commemorating another Revolutionary War battle in New Jersey.

How did a man born in 1816 in SchwäbischGmünd, in the Kingdom of Württemberg (now part of Germany), come to paint such an iconic American historical scene? The story begins when he was 9 years old. His parents came to America as

ABOVE Painting study for “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way” by Emanuel Leutze, 1861. Oil on canvas.

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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The Allure of

Big Sur Why this slice of California’s coastal wilderness has captured the imagination of artists, writers, and poets alike WRITTEN BY

David Coulson

PHOTOGRAPHED BY

Maria Coulson

The rugged coastline of Rocky Point at Big Sur.

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ig Sur is not so much a destination as a state of mind. The landscape and wildlife speak to the naturalist in every soul who visits there.

For decades, people have journeyed to Big Sur seeking inspiration and communion in this magnificent natural cathedral. Time spent exploring along the coast or trekking through the mountains or roaming among the redwoods or simply laying back in harmony with the surroundings is a sojourn for body, mind, and spirit.

Central California’s Big Sur region of wild and

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rugged coast and rough and tumble mountains stretches for 90 miles from Carmel to San Simeon, intersected only by iconic Highway 1. Big Sur is about the mountains and the ocean and the interface between the two. Early-20th-century resident poet Robinson Jeffers called it the “greatest meeting of land and sea in the world.”

Grandeur and Remoteness Big Sur’s grandeur and remoteness have long made it a haven for literary luminaries. Author Henry Miller developed a strong relationship with the area, embracing it as his spiritual home AMERI CAN ESSE NCE

Nature | The Great Outdoors

ABOVE A clear pool ensconced between the massive boulders of Big Sur River Gorge.

ABOVE RIGHT An artist paints amid wildflowers at Garrapata State Park.

for 18 years.

“Big Sur has a climate all its own and a character all its own,” he wrote in his mid-century memoir “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch.” “Skies of pure azure and walls of fog moving in and out of the canyons with invisible feet, hills in winter of emerald green and in summer mountain upon mountain of pure gold. There was ever the unfathomable silence of the forest, the blazing immensity of the Pacific, days drenched with sun and nights spangled with stars.”

From his house set on a slope above Partington Canyon, Miller had imposing views of the ocean. But he chose to work in a small, wooden shed facing a wall, not to be distracted.

“Big Sur is the California that men dreamed of years ago,” he wrote. “This is the Pacific that Balboa looked at from the Peak of Darien, this is the face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look.”

Miller fretted that the unspoiled complexion of Big Sur would be lost to the “air-conditioned nightmare” of modern life. He needn’t have worried. It is much the same now as then.

Admittedly, a procession of RVs does form in the summer. But only about 1,750 residents live there.

Other than the Native American Esselen tribe, followed by a few loggers, mountain men, and pioneer families in the late 19th century, Big Sur remained a fortress for solitude. Then, in 1937,

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came the completion of Highway 1, with the blasting of cliff faces and the erecting of bridges spanning cavernous canyons to create a tenuous, narrow strip along the coastline.

Drama and Adventure “This was home, this rugged, lonely coast,” novelist Nora Roberts wrote in “Daring to Dream.” “He had tooled along the spectacular Amalfi Drive in Italy, sped through the fjords of Norway, but not even their heart-stopping beauty could match the sheer drama of Big Sur.” Its breathtaking stretch of cliff-hugging, hairpin-turned highway is considered the quintessential scenic coastal route in North America. Even if you cruise the tight track in a humdrum Hyundai instead of a snazzy Mustang convertible with the wind in your hair and the sounds of the Beach Boys’ “California Saga” celebrating Big Sur in your ears, this drive uncorks clutch-the-edge-of-yourseat excitement.

You never know what’s over the next rise or around the next bend. It might be mountains that plunge into the ocean, surf and wind that pound the rocky shore and contort the cypress trees into otherworldly shapes, or a sheltered cove that harbors a tranquil sea painted in shades of turquoise and sapphire.

A Haven Big Sur is a hiker and naturalist’s delight with five state parks. The Ventana Wilderness of Los 121

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