LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN FARMER AND OTHER ESSAYS by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Dennis D. Moore (Editor), Dennis D. Moore ( 9780674051812 )

Item Details

Title:

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN FARMER AND OTHER ESSAYS

By:

J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Dennis D. Moore (Editor), Dennis D. Moore

Format:

Hardback

List price:

£35.95

Our price:

£28.04

Discount:

22% off

You save:

£7.91

ISBN 10:

0674051815

ISBN 13:

9780674051812

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Publisher:

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

8 January, 2013

Series:

The John Harvard Library

Pages:

416

Description:

Published in London just as the idea of an "American" was becoming a reality, Letters introduced Europeans to America's landscape, customs, and then-new people. Moore's reader's edition situates these twelve letters, which shift from hope to disillusion, in the context of thirteen other essays representative of Crevecoeur's writings in English.

Synopsis:

Letters from an American Farmer was published in London in 1782, just as the idea of an "American" was becoming a reality. Those epistolary essays introduced the European public to America's landscape and customs and have since served as the iconic description of a then-new people. Dennis D. Moore's convenient, up-to-date reader's edition situates those twelve pieces from the 1782 Letters in the context of thirteen other essays representative of Crevecoeur's writings in English. The "American Farmer" of the title is Crevecoeur's fictional persona Farmer James, a bumpkin from rural Pennsylvania. In his Introduction to this edition, Moore places this self-effacing pose in perspective and charts Crevecoeur's enterprising approach to self-promotion, which involved repackaging and adapting his writings for French and English audiences. Born in Normandy, Crevecoeur came to New York in the 1750s by way of England and then Canada, traveled throughout the colonies as a surveyor and trader, and was naturalized in 1765.The pieces he included in the 1782 Letters map a shift from hopefulness to disillusionment: its opening selections offer America as a utopian haven from European restrictions on personal liberty and material advancement but give way to portrayals of a land plagued by the horrors of slavery, the threat of Indian raids, and revolutionary unrest. This new edition opens up a broader perspective on this artful, ambitious writer and cosmopolitan thinker who coined America's most enduring metaphor: a place where "individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men."

Publication:

Imprint:

The Belknap Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN FARMER (PB)