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The Native’s Return
"“Early in the spring of 1932, when I received a Guggenheim Fellowship requiring me to go to Europe for a year, I was thirty-three and had been in the United States nineteen years. At fourteen—a son of peasants, with a touch of formal “city education”—I had emigrated to the United States from Carniola, then a tiny Slovene province of Austria, now an even tinier part of a banovina in the new Yugoslav state.
In those nineteen years I had become an American; indeed, I had often thought I was more American than were most of the native citizens of my acquaintance. I was ceaselessly, almost fanatically, interested in the American scene; in ideas and forces operating in America’s national life, in movements, tendencies and personalities, in technical advances, in social, economic, and political problems, and generally in the tremendous drama of the New World.
Events and things outside of America interested me but incidentally: only in so far as they were related to, or as they affected, the United States. I spoke, wrote, and read only in English. For sixteen years I had had practically no close contact with immigrants of my native nationality. For three years I had been a soldier in the American army. After the war I had roamed over a good half of the United States and had been to Hawaii, Philippines, Central and South America. In the last few years I had become an American writer, writing on American subjects for American readers. And I had married an American girl.
To Stella I had told but a few main facts about my childhood and early boyhood in the old country; and what little I had told her of my parents, and the village and house in which I was born, had seemed to her “like a story.” She scarcely believed me. To her I was an American from toes to scalp.
Now, because of my Guggenheim Fellowship, we were going to Europe.”"
In those nineteen years I had become an American; indeed, I had often thought I was more American than were most of the native citizens of my acquaintance. I was ceaselessly, almost fanatically, interested in the American scene; in ideas and forces operating in America’s national life, in movements, tendencies and personalities, in technical advances, in social, economic, and political problems, and generally in the tremendous drama of the New World.
Events and things outside of America interested me but incidentally: only in so far as they were related to, or as they affected, the United States. I spoke, wrote, and read only in English. For sixteen years I had had practically no close contact with immigrants of my native nationality. For three years I had been a soldier in the American army. After the war I had roamed over a good half of the United States and had been to Hawaii, Philippines, Central and South America. In the last few years I had become an American writer, writing on American subjects for American readers. And I had married an American girl.
To Stella I had told but a few main facts about my childhood and early boyhood in the old country; and what little I had told her of my parents, and the village and house in which I was born, had seemed to her “like a story.” She scarcely believed me. To her I was an American from toes to scalp.
Now, because of my Guggenheim Fellowship, we were going to Europe.”"
306 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1934
2 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Louis Adamic
75 books19 followersSlovenian-born, he came to US at the age of 14. Socialist, he supported Tito and was friends with Rex Stout and Robinson Jeffers.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 21, 2020
My father, a fellow immigrant from Yugoslavia, was friends with Adamic. In 1935 they met up and spent some time together in the Kotor area of Montenegro, where my father was born. I don't know where my father, Ray Prohaska,* stood on the subject of Louis' spying, or what he knew about it, though I do know that my father was on good terms with the head of the O.S.S. at the time. [ ed; "Wild Bill" Donovan, who didn't become head of the OSS until the War started.] It would be interesting to me to know more, but I'm afraid it is lost to history. Any info would be appreciated; I am interested in 20th c. European Geo-Politics.
*Rayprohaska.com
*Rayprohaska.com
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September 19, 2007The next in my ongoing list of books by suicides. Plus, it's about the Balkans, and so far, everything I've read about the Balkans has been riveting, novels or otherwise.
October 30, 2021
I bought an old library copy of the first edition (1934) of this book through Better World Books for just a few bucks, and I read it. I got it because I'd read that Rex Stout placed his famous detective Nero Wolfe as coming from Montenegro because of this book, and because of his friendship with the author, Louis Adamic. I thought maybe I'd pick up some interesting information about Montnegro that would help me understand how Stout portrayed his character. I thought the book might be quite dry and poorly written, so really didn't expect to read it through. However, I found the book quite engaging, and read it straight through. It was well written, had an interesting point of view. The author was born in Slovenia, immigrated to the US at age 14, but the book tells of his return to his birthplace with his American wife for a 10 month visit in the early 1930s. Interesting aspects of the Great Depression, the effects of the Great War on Europe, the rise of Fascism in Europe, the influence of the Russian revolution on people of the time, the looming threat of a coming war in Europe. But mostly it is about how he falls in love with the people of his native land, when he didn't really expect to do so. This book was a US best seller when first published, and I can see why. It has a small section of black and white photos of Yugoslavia of the period. I may even seek out some of his other books.
October 31, 2019
Although it covers roughly the same time period as Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, I found The Native's Return more readable than West's tome. On a Guggenheim fellowship, Louis Adamic returns to now Yugoslavia which he left almost twenty years earlier to emigrate to the United States. He is hailed a hero in his native land, with his American wife, Stella. Adamic travels throughout the country, from his homeland Blato in Carniola, Slovenia to Montenegro, Dalmatia, Kossovo and Belgrade. I enjoyed the telling of the wedding and funeral near his hometown, the traditions and superstitions. I learned a lot, including about Dr. Stampar, whose "social medicine" ideas are not fully realized in many parts of the world today, and King Alexander, with his government built on deceit and cronyism (in Adamic's view). Max Vanka and his wife, Margaret, are also mentioned, having become friends with Louis and Stella during their stay in Yugoslavia. (This would have been prior to Vanka painting the St. Nicholas murals.)
"Most of the troubles [disputes] are laughed off, sung away, or drowned in wine, which Slovenia produces in abundance." (97)
About King Alexander: ""He is a stranger to real wisdom, but possesses a profound cunning." (346)
"Most of the troubles [disputes] are laughed off, sung away, or drowned in wine, which Slovenia produces in abundance." (97)
About King Alexander: ""He is a stranger to real wisdom, but possesses a profound cunning." (346)
October 18, 2023
Half travel memoir and half Slavic political analysis. There’s nothing like a treatise on the Balkan powder keg of politics. Interesting to read the discourse between WWI and WWII knowing what was to come afterwards.
December 23, 2022
Fascinating. Didn't like his closing opinions on many things, but again, totally fascinating. A very different world!
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October 30, 2017This book is available to read for free online: https://archive.org/details/nativesre...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews