The Man Without a Country

Not to be confused with A Man Without a Country.

For other uses, see The Man Without a Country (disambiguation).

"The Man Without a Country" is a short story by American writer Edward Everett Hale, first published anonymously in The Atlantic in December 1863. It is the story of American Army lieutenant Philip Nolan, who renounces his country during a trial for treason and is consequently sentenced to spend the rest of his days at sea without so much as a word of news about the United States. Though the story is set in the early 19th century, it is an allegory about the upheaval of the American Civil War and was meant to promote the Union cause. It is also seen to be inspired by Clement Vallandingham, an anti-war pro-Confederate Ohio Democrat who - like Nolan - was exiled and expressed a disinterest in belonging to the United States.

Plot summary

The protagonist is a young United States Army lieutenant, Philip Nolan, who develops a friendship with the visiting Aaron Burr. When Burr is tried for treason (historically this occurred in 1807), Nolan is tried as an accomplice. During his testimony, he bitterly renounces his nation, angrily shouting, "Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again!" The judge, on convicting him, icily grants him his wish: he is to spend the rest of his life aboard United States Navy warships, in exile, with no right ever again to set foot on U.S. soil, and with explicit orders that no one shall ever mention his country to him again.

The sentence is carried out to the letter. For the rest of his life, Nolan is transported from ship to ship, living out his life as a prisoner on the high seas, never once allowed back in a home port. None of the sailors in whose custody Nolan remains are allowed to speak to him about the U.S., and his newspapers are censored. Nolan is unrepentant at first, but over the years becomes sadder and wiser, and desperate for news. One day, as he is being transferred to another ship, he beseeches a young sailor never to make the same mistake that he had: "Remember, boy, that behind all these men... behind officers and government, and people even, there is the Country Herself, your Country, and that you belong to her as you belong to your own mother. Stand by her, boy, as you would stand by your mother...!"

Deprived of a homeland, Nolan slowly and painfully learns the true worth of his country. He misses it more than his friends or family, more than art or music or love or nature. Without it, he is nothing. Dying, he shows his room to an officer named Danforth; it is "a little shrine" of patriotism. The Stars and Stripes are draped around a picture of George Washington. Over his bed, Nolan has painted an eagle, with lightning "blazing from his beak" and claws grasping the globe. At the foot of his bed is a dated map of the old territories. Nolan smiles, "Here, you see, I have a country!" Nolan dies content after Danforth finally tells him all that has happened to the U.S. since his sentence was imposed. Nolan asks him to have them bury him in the sea and have a gravestone placed in memory of him, at Fort Adams, Mississippi, or at New Orleans.

Effectiveness

As Hale had intended, the short story created substantial support for the US as a country, identifying the priority of the Union over the individual states, and thus pressuring readers to view Southern secession negatively. In so doing, he convinced many individuals to join, or at least support the North's effort to, as Abraham Lincoln put it, "preserve the Union."

In the story, Hale skillfully convinced many readers that Nolan was an actual figure, thus increasing the story's effectiveness as a piece of patriotic literature. He achieved this realism through verisimilitude, creating an "air" of reality. By frequently mentioning specific dates and places and using numerous contemporary references, Hale grounds his story in a firm foundation of history and makes the story seem like a record of actual events. Furthermore, Hale makes the narrator, Frederick Ingham, seem a strongly reliable individual. Throughout the text, Ingham often acknowledges his mistakes and identifies possible lapses in his memory. For this reason, readers believe Ingham's sense of honesty, and automatically deem him a trustworthy and, to some extent, an accurate narrator. Finally, Hale uses a plain style, maintaining an unstilted and almost colloquial feel. Thus he makes the story easy to relate to, and the patriotic moral accessible to readers.

Adaptations

"The Man Without a Country" has been adapted for film several times, starting in 1917 with The Man Without a Country starring Florence La Badie, a 1918 film My Own United States and another Man Without a Country starring John Litel and Gloria Holden and released by Warner Brothers in 1937.

In 1973, a made-for-television movie titled The Man Without a Country was directed by Delbert Mann and written by Sidney Carroll. It featured Cliff Robertson as Philip Nolan, Beau Bridges as Frederick Ingham, Peter Strauss as Arthur Danforth, Robert Ryan as Lt. Cmdr. Vaughan, Walter Abel as Col. A.B. Morgan, Geoffrey Holder as one of the slaves on a slave ship, Shepperd Strudwick as the Secretary of the Navy, John Cullum as Aaron Burr and Patricia Elliott as Mrs. Graff.

There were other movies made in 1925 and another slated for distribution in 2008.

An opera of the story, also entitled The Man Without a Country, was composed by Walter Damrosch and premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1937.

A four-part dramatization was recorded in June 1947 and issued by Decca on two coupled 12" 78 rpm discs. Bing Crosby provided the narration and Frank Lovejoy portrayed Philip Nolan.

On May 8, 1977, a three-act radio play was broadcast as an episode of famous radio man Himan Brown's The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater. The venerable Russell Horton performed the part of Nolan. Tom Bosley, Howard Cunningham of TV's Happy Days, was host of the series.

References

• John R. Adams, Edward Everett Hale (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977),
• Melinda Lawson; "'A Profound National Devotion': The Civil War Union Leagues and the Construction of a New National Patriotism." Civil War History . Volume: 48. Issue: 4. : 2002. Pp 338+.

External links

• Original 1863 magazine
• The Man Without a Country and Other Tales at Project Gutenberg