[Crèvecoeur, Michel Guillaume St. Jean]:

$450 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

LETTRES D'UN CULTIVATEUR AMÉRICAIN, ÉCRITES A W. S. ECUYER, DEPUIS L'ANNÉE 1770, JUSQU'À 1781. The third edition in French, following the first London edition of 1782, with additional material included. Crèvecoeur came to America during the French and Indian War and served with the French forces. Afterwards, he settled in the British colonies, becoming a farmer. This work, which describes his experiences in America, is justly famous for its vivid picture of a colonial world slipping into the chaos of war, revolution, and nationhood. Two of the essays, "What is an American?" and "Distresses of a Frontier Man," particularly address the confusion of the times. Crèvecoeur gives a negative assessment of slavery in his section on South Carolina, and one of the "letters" is written from Culpeper County, Virginia. There is also much on the natural history of British North America, and ethnographic information on American Indians. "As literature unexcelled by any American work of the eighteenth century" - Howes. Certainly one of the chief works of colonial literature, and one of the most important observations on America during the era of the Revolution.

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