[Crèvecoeur, Michel Guillaume St. Jean]:

$65,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN FARMER; DESCRIBING CERTAIN PROVINCIAL SITUATIONS, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS, NOT GENERALLY KNOWN; AND CONVEYING SOME IDEA OF THE LATE AND PRESENT INTERIOR CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE ... Michel Guillaume St. Jean Crevecoeur's personal copy of his landmark work on Revolutionary America, with his autograph corrections and a presentation inscription to Benjamin Franklin. Crevecoeur 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. Crevecoeur 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. Also notable are Crevecoeur's accounts of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. "Crevecoeur is best known for introducing the symbol of the 'melting pot' into American culture and for his depiction of Americans as a new race....Both Benjamin Franklin and George Washington recommended his Letters to potential American immigrants" - Sinopoli, p.181.Crevecoeur apparently intended to gift t

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