US novelist from outskirts of Maine left French town (8)
I believe the answer is:
melville
'us novelist' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'outskirts of maine left french town' is the wordplay.
'outskirts of' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only letters on the outskirts).
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'french town' becomes 'ville' ('town' in French).
'maine' with its middle removed is 'me'.
'me'+'l'+'ville'='MELVILLE'
'from' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for melville that I've seen before include "Herman --, author of Moby Dick" , "Herman --, author of Moby-Dick" , "Creator of Dick" , "Writer of Moby Dick" , "Herman ........ wrote ''Moby Dick''" .)