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Charles Sealsfield and the Courrier des Etats-Unis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
After Otto Heller published the results of his investigations into the question of Charles Sealsfield's claimed editorship of the Courrier des Etats-Unis in the Euphorion in 1907 (xiv, 718-724), he was convinced that he had disproved “the biographical fable that makes Sealsfield editor of the Courrier des États-Unis.” This assertion was repeated in 1939 in the important Heller-Leon Sealsfield Bibliography and more recently in an article published by the Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, to which Professor Eduard Castle of the University of Vienna then made an enlightening but inconclusive reply because he did not have access to copies of the Courrier. In view of the fact that to date Otto Heller's study remains the only one based on an actual examination of the Courrier itself, the weight of evidence must remain in favor of his published conclusions unless these are disproved by more valid evidence from the same source. On the basis of a more complete study of the record it is believed that the following pages will bring such evidence and thus reestablish and confirm Sealsfield's original claim made in his biographical letter to Brockhaus asserting that from 1829-30 he was editor of the Courrier and that he resigned several weeks after news of the French Revolution of 1830 reached America. This will not only correct an unfortunate error in Sealsfield scholarship, but also clear Sealsfield against a charge of untruthfulness.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1953
References
1 Heller, “Charles Sealsfield,” Bull. Washington Univ. Assn., vi (St. Louis, 1908), 27; Otto Heller and Theodore Leon, Charles Sealsfield: Bibliography of his writings together with a classified and annotated Catalogue of Literature relating to his works and his life (St. Louis, 1939), p. 65; Norman L. Willey, “Charles Sealsfield in Amerika,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, lxvi (Aug. 1941), 58-63; Castle, “Charles Sealsfield in Amerika,” ibid., lxvii (Nov. 1942), 57-66.
2 Albert B. Faust, Charles Sealsfield (Weimar, 1897), p. 251.
3 I am indebted to Girard College for sending me a photostat copy.
4 Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 1936), xix, 391-392.
5 Faust, Sealsfield, p. 251.
6 Le Roi Joseph Bonaparte, Lettres d'Exil (1825-1844) (Paris, 1912). In a paragraph introducing this letter Fleischmann says Lacoste “under the inspiration of Joseph, had in New York founded Le Courrier des États-Unis.” The fact that the Courrier was not published until a year later shows that Fleischmann also wrote without examining the files of the Courrier and that he copied the error first made by Bertin.
7 In this connection we would also refer to the study made by Antoine Jobin and Norman L. Willey, “Sealsfield's Knowledge of French,” Papers of the Michigan Acad. of Science, Arts and Letters, xxxi, 269-273.
8 Although the book was strictly prohibited in areas under Austrian control, copies were sold and circulated in these areas. In 1830 a revised version appeared in Brussels with the title Tablettes Autrichiennes, and in 1834 a German version was published in Leipzig under the title Seufzer aus Oestreich und seinen Provinzen.
9 Karl J. Arndt, “Sealsfield's Early Reception in England and America,” GR, xviii (Oct. 1943), 176-195.
10 It is possible that the Courrier took its text from the Revue Britannique, which in 1844 (pp. 291-327) published “Les Créoles de la Louisiane.” The Revue Britannique seems to have translated the sketches from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, which took them from the German source. Later they appeared in book form under the title Les Emigrés Français dans la Louisiane (Paris, 1853). The French text is the same but the selections from Seals-field are longer and more complete. The introduction to the book states that the name of the author has now been made public and that he is called “Scalsfield,” obviously a misprint.
11 The United States of North America as they are in their political, religious and social relations (London: John Murray, 1827); Tokeah; or, the white rose (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, and Carey, 1829).
12 Faust, Sealsfield, pp. 177, 255.
13 “Charles Sealsfield's Letter to Joel R. Poinsett,” GR, xxvii (Oct. 1952), 158.
14 Sealsfield, Gesammelte Werke, Siebenter Theil, Morton oder die große Tour (Stuttgart, 1846), pp. 9-10.
15 This information is taken from a photostat copy of the original given to me by Herr Albert Kresse, a Sealsfield scholar in Stuttgart.
16 The Dictionary of American Biography (1934), xiii, 534-535, and Allibone's Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors (1870), ii, 1431, have good sketches of Noah.
17 Through the kindness of Herr Albert Kresse of Stuttgart I have a photostat copy of this letter.
18 Ida von Düringsfeld, “Charles Sealsfield,” Magazin für die Literalur des Auslandes, xxi (1862), 28, 330-333.
19 Charles J. Ingersoll, History of the Second War Between the United States of America and Great Britain (Philadelphia, 1852), ii, 386.