Elmer Gantry: A New American Opera

My character's name is Talmage Odell Weems. Talmage is my real name, taken from my maternal grandfather, who was alive during the entire period of this opera's setting. He was a sincerely religious man of little or no formal education who read the entire Bible seven times. Odell has no particular origin, except that I like the rhythm of it. Weems is a reference to the historical character, Mason Locke Weems, more familiarly known as Parson Weems. Weems was born in 1759 in Maryland as the youngest of 19 siblings. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and after studies in London was ordained into the Church of England. As one of the first American clergymen ordained after the revolution, he returned to the newly independent nation in 1784 as rector of All Hallows' Parish in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Weems was a devout evangelical, social activist, and reformer, who drew the ire of the Episcopalian hierarchy for his wreckless sympathies toward, horror of horrors, Methodism. In 1794 Weem's enthusiasm for evangelism shifted to writing and bookselling. He met George Washington, obtained Washington's endorsement of an early work of authorship, The Philanthropist, and authored other patriotic works. He became wealthy traveling and selling affordable religious, educational, and patriotic works to ordinary Americans. He authored a widely sold biography of George Washington, but he is most famous as the person primarily responsible for spreading the myth of Washington and the cherry tree, a myth later memorialized by the early 20th century American artist, Grant Wood.

I chose to use my maternal grandfather's first and middle names (Chester Levi)as he was born in 1913 and I felt his name was appropraite to this period.