Letters From An American Farmer By Hector St. John De Crevecoeur



















































































































































 -  Traite de la Culture des Pommes de Terre, 1782.]
a second on the false acacia; but his best work was - Page 10
Letters From An American Farmer By Hector St. John De Crevecoeur - Page 10 of 154 - First - Home

Enter page number    Previous Next

Number of Words to Display Per Page: 250 500 1000

Traite De La Culture Des Pommes De Terre, 1782.] A Second On The False Acacia; But His Best Work Was Done And He Knew It.

Crevecoeur lived on until 1813, dying in the same year with Madame d'Houdetot, who was so much his elder.

He paid a worthy tribute to that lady's character; perhaps we do her an injustice in knowing her only for the liaison with Jean-Jacques. He died on November 12, 1813: member of agricultural societies and of the Academy (section of moral and political science), and of Franklin's Philosophical Society at Philadelphia. A town in Vermont had been named St. Johnsbury in his honour; he had the freedom of more than one New England city. It is, none the less, as the author of Letters from an American Farmer, published in 1782, and written, for the most part, years before that date, that we remember him - so far as we do remember.

IV

Much remains unsaid - much, even, of the essential. Some of the facts are still unknown; others may be looked for in the biography written by his great-grandson, Robert de Crevecoeur, and published at Paris some eighty years ago. There is hardly occasion to discuss here what Crevecoeur did, as consul at New York, to encourage the exchange of French manufactures and American exports; or to tell of his packet- line - the first established between New York and a French port; or to set down the story of his children; or to describe those last sad years, at home and abroad, after the close of his consular career. There is no room at all for the words of praise that were spoken of the Letters by Franklin and Washington, who recommended them to intending immigrants as a faithful, albeit "highly coloured" picture. We must let the writings of the American Farmer speak for themselves: they belong, after all, to literature.

It was a modest man - a modest life; a life filled, none the less, with romantic incident. All this throws into relief the beauty of its best fruits. Crevecoeur made no claim to artistry when he wrote his simple, heartfelt Letters; and yet his style, in spite of occasional defects and extra flourishes, seems to us worthy of his theme. These Letters from an American Farmer have been an inspiration to poets - and they "smell of the woods."

In a prose age, Crevecoeur lived a kind of pastoral poetry; in an age largely blind, he saw the beauties of nature, less through readings in the Nouvelle Heloise and Bernardin's Etudes than with his own keen eyes; he was a true idealist, besides, and as such kindles one's enthusiasm. The man's optimism, his grateful personality, his saneness, too - for here is a dreamer neither idle nor morbid - are qualities no less enduring, or endearing, than his fame as "poet-naturalist." The American Farmer might have used Cotton's Retirement for an epigraph on his title-page: -

"Farewell, thou busy world, and may We never meet again, Here I can eat and sleep and pray.

Enter page number   Previous Next
Page 10 of 154
Words from 4675 to 5183 of 79752


Previous 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next

More links: First 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
 110 120 130 140 150 Last

Display Words Per Page: 250 500 1000

 
Africa (29)
Asia (27)
Europe (59)
North America (58)
Oceania (24)
South America (8)
 

List of Travel Books RSS Feeds

Africa Travel Books RSS Feed

Asia Travel Books RSS Feed

Europe Travel Books RSS Feed

North America Travel Books RSS Feed

Oceania Travel Books RSS Feed

South America Travel Books RSS Feed

Copyright © 2005 - 2022 Travel Books Online