CRÈVECOEUR, Michel Guillaume St Jean de (1735-1813)

[Letters from an American farmer] Lettres d'un Cultivateur Américain, écrites a W. S. Ecuyer, Depuis l'année 1770, jusqu'a 1781. Traduites de l'Anglois par ***

A Paris: Chez Cuchet, Libraire, rue & hôtel Serpente, M. DCC. LXXXIV [1784]. Quarter-Calf. First Edition in French, First Issue (with errata, not found in second issue) of the author's free translation (adding a second volume) of his Letters from an American Farmer, "as literature, unexcelled by any American work of the eighteenth century." (Howes) Complete in two octavo volumes: xxiv,iv,422,[2]; [4],iv,400,[2]pp, with head and tail pieces. Half title in second volume. Contemporary tan quarter calf, smooth spines in six compartments divided by wide gilt rolls, citron and blue goat skin labels gilt, marbled paper-covered boards, marbled edges, vellum tips. A remarkably attractive set, securely bound, spine gilt bright, pages fresh and free of foxing with ample margins. Howes C 883. Sabin 17494. Monaghan 502. DAB IV, pp. 542-44. Clark I, 218(4). Fine. Item #BB2706

First published in London, in English, in 1782. Crèvecoeur served in the French and Indian War as a surveyor in the French colonial militia. Following the British defeat of the French in 1759, he became a naturalized citizenship of New York, adopted the name John Hector St. John, and began farming in Orange County, meanwhile observing the emergence of an American society. This French edition is a substantial rewrite of the English version, and more pro-American and anti-British in tone. Crèvecoeur's essays (including those on Nantucket and on Martha's Vineyard and the whale fishery), describing the scenery, customs, and manners of the colonies just then slipping into the chaos of revolution, as well as the New World's natural history and the ethnography of its native populations, were enormously popular in both England and France, where they were reprinted many times, and in Holland and Germany, playing a major role in attracting Europeans to settle in America. Letter IX, containing his description of a caged slave up in a tree, dying while tortured by insects and birds of prey, is a riveting indictment of slavery. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).

Price: $2,165.00