 Title page of the second edition. | |
| Author | J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Travel literature, Novel |
| Publisher | Davies & Davis |
Publication date | 1782 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
Letters from an American Farmer is a series of letters written byFrench American writerJ. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, first published in1782. The considerably longer title under which it was originally published isLetters 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. The twelve letters cover a wide range of topics, from the emergence of an American identity to theslave trade.
Crèvecœur wroteLetters during a period of seven years prior to theAmerican Revolutionary War, while farming in the fertile Greycourt, blackdirt region ofChester, a small town inOrange County, New York. It is told from the viewpoint of a fictional narrator in correspondence with an English gentleman, and each letter concerns a different aspect of life or location in theBritish colonies of America. The work incorporates a number of styles and genres, including documentary, as well associological observations.
Although only moderately successful in America,Letters was immediately popular in Europe upon its publication in 1782. Prompted by high demand, Crèvecœur produced an expanded French version that was published two years later. The work is recognized as being one of the first in thecanon ofAmerican literature, and has influenced a diverse range of subsequent works.
Born inCaen,Normandy to an aristocratic family,Michel-Guillaume Hector St. John de Crèvecœur received aJesuit education at the Jesuit Collège Royal de Bourbon. In 1754, having left school, Crèvecœur visited relatives in England where he became engaged; this visit would mark the beginning of a lifelong admiration for the culture and politics of the country. Shortly after this, possibly due to the death of his fiancée, he joined a French regiment in Canada engaged in theFrench and Indian War (1754–1763). After being wounded in theBattle of the Plains of Abraham (1759), Crèvecœur resigned his commission and began traveling widely acrossPennsylvania andNew York.[1][2]
In 1765, Crèvecœur became an official resident of New York and naturalized as a British subject, adopting the nameJ. Hector St. John. After working as a surveyor and trader during the subsequent four years, in which he traveled extensively, he purchasedfarmland inOrange County, New York and married Mehitabel Tippett. During the following seven years, Crèvecœur wroteLetters from an American Farmer and corresponded with William Seton (possibly referenced in the book as "Mr F. B.", and to whom the French edition was dedicated).[2][3]
As local hostilities between theloyalists andrevolutionaries escalated in the build-up to theAmerican Revolutionary War (1775–1783), Crèvecœur decided to return to France; scholars have suggested that he did so in order to secure his legal claim to hispatrimony. Upon his arrival in New York City in 1778, Crèvecœur found himself under suspicion of being a Revolutionary spy and was detained; whilst in detention, he suffered anervous collapse. He was released to travel in September 1780, and traveled to London after landing in Ireland. There, he sold the manuscript ofLetters to publishers Davies & Davis before leaving for France.[4][5]
Letters is structured around the fictional correspondence via letters between James[9]—an American farmer living in the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania—and an English gentleman, Mr F. B. However, it is only James' letters that are presented, as the addressee's answers are absent.[10] The work consists of twelve letters that address a wide range of issues concerning life in the British colonies in America in the years prior to the American Revolutionary War. The "Introductory Letter" (Letter I) introduces the fictional narrator James, and each subsequent letter takes as its subject matter either a certain topic (Letter III "What is an American?") or a particular location that James visits (Letters IV, VI and IX describe Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Charles Town respectively),[2][11] though certain themes span or are referred to within several letters. The exception to this is Letter XI, which is written by a Russian gentleman ("Mr. Iw——n Al——z") describing his visit to the botanist John Bartram,[12] but who is presumed to also be writing to Mr F. B.[13] Arranged as a series of discontinuous letters, the work can appear superficially disconnected,[14] although critics have identified various levels of coherence and organization.[15]
The text incorporates a broad range of genres, ranging from documentary on local agricultural practices tosociological observations of the places visited and their inhabitants;[16] Norman Grabo describes it as "an example of the American tradition of book-as-anthology and authorship-as-editing".[14] Whereas early readings of the text tended to consider it "as a straightforward natural and social history of young America",[17] critics now see it as combining elements of fiction and non-fiction in what Thomas Philbrick has termed a "complex artistry".[18] In addition to its usual classification as a form ofepistolary, philosophicaltravel narrative—comparable toMontesquieu'sPersian Letters[2]—the text has been considered as a novel,[19] and as aromance.[18][20]
Letters has been said to exhibit a "model of decline",[21] as the optimistic tone of the early letters is disrupted and the text become increasingly pessimistic; there is a movement from a "joy, pride, wonder" at the spectacle of America,[22] to the "images of the inhuman brutality of slavery".[23] However, there is disagreement over whether this model of decline is produced by James' own disillusionment, or whether it is evidence of Crèvecœur's voice interceding into the narrative;[21] further, critics disagree over where in the narrative the disillusionment occurs, variably placing it in the third, eighth and ninth letters.[24]
Among the most significant and recurring themes ofLetters is that of the individual and society's relationship with their environment; the work has been read as an "impassioned, unqualified defense of Americanagrarianism".[25] The theme appears especially in Letter II, III and in the letters describing Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, where James' views are expressive of the doctrine ofenvironmental determinism,[26][27] that human growth, development and activities are controlled by the physical environment.[28] Anna Carew-Miller suggests that what the text articulates on this subject is "the [cultural] myth that a man's relationship with the land confirms his masculinity and dignity as a citizen."[29]
When Crèvecœur offered his manuscript essays to the London publishers Davies & Davis in 1782, they were initially skeptical about the potential for theLetters to be successful. However, the work proved to be instantly popular in England for a variety of reasons. Proponents of political reform such asWilliam Godwin andThomas Paine approved of the radical anti-government implications of its message.[citation needed]Romantic writers admired, and were influenced by,[30] its evocation of the natural landscape and the individual's relationship to it. More widely, in the final years of the Revolutionary War, the public was eager for the documentary detailLetters provided about America. The popularity of the book led to a second edition being called for only a year later.[31]
In continental Europe,Letters proved equally popular. Dutch and German translations were rapidly produced, and prompted by constant demand, editions appeared in such places as Dublin, Paris and Maastricht.[31] In lieu of a second volume of letters, Crèvecœur produced an expanded French version (Lettres d'un cultivateur américain) that was published in 1784.[3] The French version, which removed the fictional persona of James, is presented as a series of documents that have been neutrally edited, providing greater documentary detail but at the expense of artistry.[32]
In the twentieth century there was a revival of interest in the text. Critic David Carlson suggests that it was "Not aesthetics, but the politics of nationalism appears to have been the primary force behind Crevecoeur's critical resurrection"—theLetters being among the first works to depict an American "melting pot".[33]Letters, particularly Letter III ("What is an American?"), is frequentlyanthologized, and the work is recognized as being one of the first in thecanon ofAmerican literature.[34][35][36]
Environmental determinism is the doctrine that human growth, development and activities are controlled by the physical environment (Lethwaite, 1966).
