| 词条 | J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur |
| 释义 |
| name = J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur | image = Hectorstjohncrevecoeur.jpg | caption = | birth_date = December 31, 1735 | birth_place = Normandy, France | death_date = November 12, 1813 | death_place = Sarcelles, France | other_names = Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur | known_for = Pro-American writings during the time of the American Revolution | occupation = Writer | spouse = Mehitable Tippet }} Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecœur ({{IPA-fr|miʃɛl ɡijom ʒɑ̃ də kʁɛvkœʁ}}; December 31, 1735 – November 12, 1813), naturalized in New York as John Hector St. John, was a French-American writer. He was born in Caen, Normandy, France, to the Comte and Comtesse de Crèvecœur (Count and Countess of Crèvecœur). BiographyHe was born December 31, 1735, to a family of minor nobility in Normandy, France. In 1755 he migrated to New France in North America. There, he served in the French and Indian War as a cartographer in the French Colonial Militia, rising to the rank of lieutenant. Following the British defeat of the French Army in 1759, he moved to the Province of New York, where he took out citizenship, adopted the English-American name of John Hector St. John, and in 1770 married an American woman, Mehitable Tippet, the daughter of a New York merchant. He bought a sizable farm in Orange County, New York, called "Pine Hill", where he prospered as a farmer. He also traveled about working as a surveyor.[1] He started writing about life in the American colonies and the emergence of an American society. In 1779, during the American Revolution, St. John tried to leave the country to return to France because of the faltering health of his father. Accompanied by his son, he crossed British-American lines to enter British-occupied New York City, where he was imprisoned as an American spy for three months without a hearing. Eventually, he was able to sail for Britain, and was shipwrecked off the coast of Ireland.[1] From Britain, he sailed to France, where he was briefly reunited with his father. After spending some time recuperating at the family estate, he visited Paris and the salon of Sophie d'Houdetot.[2] AuthorIn 1782, in London, he published a volume of narrative essays entitled the Letters from an American Farmer. The book quickly became the first literary success by an American author in Europe and turned Crèvecœur into a celebrated figure. He was the first writer to describe to Europeans – employing many American English terms – the life on the American frontier and to explore the concept of the American Dream, portraying American society as characterized by the principles of equal opportunity and self-determination. His work provided useful information and understanding of the "New World" that helped to create an American identity in the minds of Europeans by describing an entire country rather than another regional colony. The writing celebrated American ingenuity and the uncomplicated lifestyle. It described the acceptance of religious diversity in a society being created from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. His application of the Latin maxim "Ubi panis ibi patria" (Where there is bread, there is my country) to early American settlers also shows an interesting insight. He once praised the middle colonies for "fair cities, substantial villages, extensive fields...decent houses, good roads, orchards, meadows, and bridges, where an hundred years ago all was wild, woody, and uncultivated." DiplomatThe success of his book in France had led to his being taken up by an influential circle, and he was appointed the French consul for New York, including the areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Crèvecœur returned to New York City as the newly appointed French consul in November 1783. Anxious to be reunited with his family, he learned that his farm had been destroyed in an Indian raid, his wife was dead, and his two younger children missing. He stayed in the house of his friend William Seton,[3] who, as the last royal public notary for the city and province of New York, had helped to secure his release in 1780 from the British prison in the city. Principal of the import-export mercantile firm the William Seton Company, Seton helped Crevecoeur locate his children, who were safe and living with a family in Boston.[4] The following spring, he was able to reunite with his children. For most of the 1780s, Crèvecœur lived in New York City. St. Peter's, New YorkAt that time, New York City was the national capital and most of the resident Catholics were connected to the diplomatic corps. Initially they met for services at the home of the Spanish consul. Their numbers increased with seafaring people, merchants, emigrants from the Spanish West Indies, and a few Acadians. They then rented space at Vauxhall Gardens, a garden and entertainment venue located along the North River on Greenwich Street between Warren and Chambers Streets.[5] In 1785 Portuguese consul Jose Roiz Silva, Spanish consul Tomas Stoughton and others sought to rent the vacant Exchange building and deemed Crevecoeur the best one to make the approach. Although Crevecoeur was relatively indifferent to religion, he was sympathetic to the idea of liberty of conscience, and a friend of Lafayette. When the proposal was rejected, Crevecoeur was insulted and became very active in working for the establishment of the first Catholic church in the city. He later served as president of the first Board of Trustees of St. Peter's Church on Barclay Street.[5] Later lifeIn 1784, he published a two-volume version of his Letters from an American Farmer, enlarged and completely rewritten in French. A three-volume version followed in 1787. Both his English and his French books were translated into several other European languages and widely disseminated throughout Europe. For many years, Crèvecœur was identified by European readers with his fictional narrator, James, the 'American farmer', and held in high esteem by readers and fellow-writers across Europe. By the time he published another three-volume work in 1801, entitled Voyage dans la Haute-Pensylvanie et dans l'état de New-York, however, his fame had faded and the damages of the French Revolution and its aftermath had made people less interested in the United States. His book was ignored. An abbreviated German translation appeared the following year. An English translation was not published until 1964. Much of de Crevecoeur's best work has been published posthumously, most recently as More Letters from the American Farmer: An edition of the Essays in English Left Unpublished by Crèvecœur, edited by Dennis D. Moore (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1995). Particularly concerned about the condition of slaves, he joined the Société des Amis des Noirs (Society of the Friends of the Blacks), founded in Paris. In 1789, during a stay in France, he was trapped by the political upheaval that was quickly turning into the French Revolution. At risk as an aristocrat, he went into hiding, while secretly trying to gain passage to the United States. The necessary papers were finally delivered to him by the new American ambassador to France, James Monroe. At the end of his life Crèvecœur returned to France and settled permanently on land he inherited from his father. On November 12, 1813, he died in Sarcelles, Val d'Oise, France. The town of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, is named after him, as suggested by Ethan Allen. Primary works
Outline of Letters From an American Farmer
References1. ^1 Moore, Andrew. "The American Farmer as French Diplomat", Journal of the Western Society for French History, Vol. 39, 2011 2. ^"Houdetot", Dictionnaire de Rousseau, (ed. Raymond Trousson and Frédéric S. Eigeldinger), Paris: Champion, 1996, p. 421 3. ^[https://books.google.com/books?id=i3lHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA353&lpg=PA353&dq=J.+Hector+St.+John+de+Cr%C3%A8vec%C5%93ur+%2B+St.+Peter's&source=bl&ots=K0a0AG0Lv_&sig=rP7MH1Z2HT60gqo5viRbiKu2Wj4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB4MfXuuTYAhVhc98KHSPWAuY4ChDoAQgoMAA#v=onepage&q=J.%20Hector%20St.%20John%20de%20Cr%C3%A8vec%C5%93ur%20%20%20St.%20Peter's&f=false De Courcy, Henry. Catholic Church in the United States, T.W. Strong, 1856, p. 354]{{PD-notice}} 4. ^Mitchell, Julia Post. St. Jean de Crèvecoeur (New York: Columbia University Press, 1916){{PD-notice}} 5. ^1 [https://books.google.com/books?id=1rQOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA438&lpg=PA438&dq=J.+Hector+St.+John+de+Cr%C3%A8vec%C5%93ur+%2B+St.+Peter's&source=bl&ots=of8Xnnndrc&sig=hZyw1JHs8UIE1khL3d3pXwvR4Xs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH1tmFpuXYAhXSRt8KHdz-BG84ChDoAQg0MAQ#v=onepage&q=J.%20Hector%20St.%20John%20de%20Cr%C3%A8vec%C5%93ur%20%2B%20St.%20Peter's&f=false Meehan, Thomas F., "a Century of Catholic Laymen in New York", Messenger, 1908, p. 438]{{PD-notice}} 6. ^{{cite journal |title=The Nantucket Sequence in Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer |author= Nathaniel Philbrick |journal= New England Quarterly |volume= 64 |year=1991 |jstor=366350 }}
Selected criticism
Primary sources
External links
6 : 1735 births|1813 deaths|People from Caen|French essayists|Agrarian theorists|French male essayists |
| 随便看 |
|
开放百科全书收录14589846条英语、德语、日语等多语种百科知识，基本涵盖了大多数领域的百科知识，是一部内容自由、开放的电子版国际百科全书。