eISBN: 978-0-472-90554-6 (OA)

This is the first complete English translation of Journey into Northern Pennsylvania and the State of New York by Michel-Guillaume St. Jean de Crèvecoeur. It presents the rich reflections and tales of an 18th-century Frenchman who lived and traveled in America for 27 years. Soldier-of-fortune, gentleman farmer, friend of Washington and Franklin, Crèvecoeur describes his natural surroundings with a charm and delight unrivaled by any writer but Thoreau. In this book we follow two men, a narrator and his friend, as they witness unfamiliar Native American rituals and visit frontier settlements along the Hudson River. Interwoven are fanciful impressions of the Indigenous communities of the region and sagas of adventure that stretch credibility. More than a straightforward narrative of travel, the book has the ideological goal of attacking the corruption of Old World civilization and contrasting it with a vision of harmony, abundance, and democracy resulting from the American revolution. The work has not previously been translated into English. 

Michel-Guillaume St. Jean de Crèvecoeur came to the English colonies in 1759 or 1760 from Canada where he had served with Montcalm's army. He worked as a surveyor near Albany, NY, and founded the first American botanical garden in New Haven, CT. He also promoted the first trans-Atlantic shipping line between New York and Lorient and served as the first French consul in New York. He is also the author of Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of Eighteenth Century America. His work has been translatted by Clarissa Spencer Bostel-Mann.

Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography, United States, History

Label: Big Ten Academic Alliance

License: CC BY-NC