Bringing together the names of Sherwood Anderson and Eduardo Mallea at first only emphasizes differences between the writers—differences that appear in common beliefs about them and their respective countries. Place, time, and critical tradition set them apart. In the first instance, geographical separation would appear still important despite easy modern communications; and cultural variance is, of course, even more to be considered than spatial distance. Such matters as the quite different colonial impulses creating the present-day United States and Argentina, the “Anglic” tradition as opposed to the Hispanic, Protestantism to Catholicism, and pragmatism to idealism lead one to expect that if Anderson and Mallea conform to the general patterns of their native areas they will have little in common.