For many years I've been rewriting a novel about our mutual friend's early life ('35-"61). I am, in general, troubled by drawls and accents. I suspect Sam's. I also deplore the clipped, snooty, nasal sonority affected by the English. I am bent on resolving the matter. I am still researching the English, but thanks to Clara Clemens, I've nailed Sam. In her memoir she wrote that after Susy's death, "Father's passionate nature expressed itself in thunderous outbursts of bitterness shading into rugged grief. He walked the floor with quick steps and there was no drawl in his speech now." (p.179) So there you have it. We know where the drawl came from but not where it went. I respectfully submit that Hal Holbrook's drawl would go to the same place were he goosed with a cattle prod. Arrant fakery! Just like the English. I shall expose them. In my final novel, scheduled to be rewritten in 2168 or thereabouts, I shall hang them at Oxford. When SLC dons that ridiculous red dress, someone will yell, "Fire!" and the whole hoity-toity posturing bunch will absquatulate the premises swearing in good old-fashioned rapid fire general American English. Lee Coyle