[Crèvecoeur, Michel Guillaume St. Jean]:

$7,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

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 ... An attractive copy of the first printing of this important and greatly influential work. 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 Native Americans. Also notable is Crèvecoeur's account of Nantucket, and the excellent maps of that island and Martha's Vineyard. "As literature unexcelled by any American work of the eighteenth century" - Howes.Certainly one of the chief works of literature, and one of the most important observations on America during the era of the Revolution.

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