Letters From An American Farmer Hector St John De Crevecoeur

First published in England in 1782, Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer was one of the first works to describe the character of the average American at the close of the Revolutionary War. His famous question, 'ÄúWhat, then, is the American, this new man?'Äù, summarized the European's interest in and questioning of the new country of America at a time when centuries of tradition had just been overturned and post-colonial Americans were attempting to describe themselves in a new way. Through the character of James, the letters celebrate the land of America, its space and fertility, and the character of Americans themselves, their work ethic and spirit of personal determination. The Letters also look at the darker side of American life, particularly the issue of slavery. The discussions of American identity, participation in war (or not), and the perception of immigrants and their ethnicity make this book as relevant to our understanding of ourselves today as it was in 1782.

Consummate narrative essays made Crevecoeur a celebrated writer in America. In the epistles he has rendered an ideal American society with egalitarianism and free-will. Remarkable for the beauty of style in depiction of American navet and simple standard of living, it shows the approval of the religious multiplicity created by ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Fascinating!

Originally published in 1897, this early works is a fascinating novel of the period and still an interesting read today. Contents include; The function of Latin, Chansons De Geste, The Matter of Britain, Antiquity in Romance, The making of English and the settlement of European Prosody, Middle High German Poetry, The 'Fox, ' The 'Rose, ' and the minor Contributions of France, Icelandic and Provencal, The Literature of the Peninsulas, and Conclusion..... Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwor

A large part of the book is devoted to a description of the town of Nantucket.

Letters From an American Farmer by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur: In this epistolary collection, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur offers a series of letters that provide a unique perspective on early American life and culture. Written in the form of fictional letters from an American farmer to a European audience, the book explores themes of immigration, the American landscape, and the complexities of identity in a diverse and evolving nation. With vivid descriptions and insightful reflections, the letters capture the essence of the American experience during the 18th century. Key Aspects of the Book "Letters From an American Farmer": Immigrant Experience: The book provides insights into the lives and experiences of immigrants in America during the 18th century. Nature and Identity: The letters reflect on the relationship between the American landscape and individual identity, exploring the notion of the "American dream." Cultural Diversity: Readers encounter observations about the cultural diversity and social fabric of early America. J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur was a French-American writer and naturalist born in 1735. He immigrated to America in his youth and settled in New York, where he became a farmer and writer. Through "Letters From an American Farmer," he provided European readers with a glimpse into the American way of life, contributing to a better understanding of the complexities and aspirations of the emerging nation.

This is a critical edition of the essays that J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur (1735-1813) wrote in English but did not include in Letters from an American Farmer. First published in 1782, Letters from an American Farmer is an eighteenth-century cultural masterpiece. Written in English by a French-born immigrant, it is a collection of semiautobiographical writings in epistolary form that describe daily life along the northern frontier during the days leading up to the American Revolution. Conveying the attitudes, beliefs, aspirations, and conflicting loyalties of common settlers, Letters has helped subsequent generations to grasp the ethos of a nascent America. More than a century after Crevecoeur's death, three bound manuscript volumes surfaced that included not only the original handwritten texts of most of Letters but also the twenty-two similar writings that now make up More Letters from the American Farmer. Those manuscript volumes are now housed in the Library of Congress. Five of the pieces in More Letters are previously unpublished; the others were first published in 1925-26 but were so inconsistently and arbitrarily edited as to misrepresent the author. This edition has been awarded the emblem of the Modern Language Association's Committee on Scholarly Editions. It is based on an examination of all available relevant textual sources and includes extensive textual and historical contextual information. Rather than modernizing Crevecoeur's capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, Dennis D. Moore has preserved the original texts as closely as possible. Thus, More Letters marks the first appearance of these twenty-two writings as Crevecoeur composed them. In his general introduction, Moore discusses the various personae through which Crevecoeur speaks in these essays and notes the stylistic and topical similarities and variations between these writings and those collected in Letters. Pointing to Crevecoeur's evident influences and interests, Moore discusses recurrent themes and images related to medicine, law, religion, classicism, enlightenment philosophy, nationalism, agrarianism, aggression and war, and the cults of sensibility and domesticity. Revising and expanding what we thought we knew about Crevecoeur and his lifelong absorption in America and Americanness, More Letters also makes a significant contribution to the study of early American culture.

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 British Colonies in North America (1782) is a series of letters written by French American writer J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur. The twelve letters cover a wide range of topics, from the emergence of an American identity to discussions concerning the slave trade. Crèvecoeur wrote Letters during a period of seven years prior to the American Revolutionary War, whilst farming land near Orange County, New York. The text charts the movements of a fictional narrator, and each Letter concerns a different aspect of life or location in the British colonies of America. The book incorporates a number of styles and genres, including documentary, as well as sociological observations. Although only moderately successful in America, Letters was immediately popular in Europe. Prompted by high demand, Crèvecoeur produced an expanded French version that was published in 1784. Often regarded as the first work of American literature, the Letters has exerted a wide-ranging and powerful influence over subsequent texts and authors in that group.

America’s physical and cultural landscape is captured in these two classics of American history. Letters provides an invaluable view of the pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary eras; Sketches details in vivid prose the physical setting in which American settlers created their history. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.