ABSTRACT
Percy Wyndham Lewis’ terse account of his early years emphasized the romantic associations of the sea, the distinct phases of his life in three countries and the cosmopolitan background. His education at Rugby and the Slade turned him into a young Englishman; and seven years of bohemian life on the Continent endowed him with a European rather than an insular outlook. Lewis’ father, Charles Edward Lewis, was probably born in New York City in 1843, and grew up in Nunda where he learned to shoot and ride. A tall, handsome, square-jawed young man, with brown hair parted in the middle and intense brown eyes, he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1861 but resigned after four months because of failing vision. Charles was chased by a pack of bloodhounds and eluded them by crossing a swift-flowing river on a raft.
