[Crevecoeur, Michel Guillaume St. Jean de]

St. John, J. Hector. Letters 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. London: Printed for Thomas Davies & Lockyer Davis, 1782



8vo (8 x 5 in.; 203 x 127 mm). Half-title, 2 engraved folding maps of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, 1-leaf publisher's advertisement at end; some mostly marginal soiling, spotting and light dampstaining, dampstain along outer fold of Nantucket map and small fold tear, offsetting in Martha's Vineyard map. Contemporary sprinkled calf, gilt-ruled borders; rebacked, corners and edges mended.

John Bousquet Jr. (ms. exlibris on front endpaper dated 14 May 1819) — Rhode Island Historical Society (two stamps on half-title)

Clark, Old South I:218; Howes C883; Sabin 17496;  Streeter sale 711

First edition of these charming and informative essays offering the naturalized Frenchman's impressions of the British Colonies prior to the Revolution.

The essays include "What is an American?" and his "Description of Nantucket" with others on the education and employment of its natives and their peculiar customs. Those "On the situation, feelings and pleasures of an American farmer" and on "Distresses of a Frontier Man" give a vivid picture of life in the wilderness, enhanced by the author's intimate knowledge of farming, and the perspective given by his foreign extraction. He wrote his essays, in English, at different points during the war, and translated them into French upon his return to his native land.