Crevecoeur, Michel-Guillaume Jean de << krehv KUR, mee SHEHL gee YOHM zhahn duh >> (1735-1813), was a French-born essayist who portrayed rural life in colonial America. His descriptions of the attitudes and hopes of the colonists persuaded many Europeans to settle in America.
Crevecoeur was born on Jan. 31, 1735, near Caen, France. When he was 19 years old, he went to Canada to fight with the French during the French and Indian War. In 1769, he bought a farm near Chester, New York, and began his literary career.
Crevecoeur wrote under the pen name of J. Hector St. John. He became best known for 12 essays collected in Letters from an American Farmer (1782), written to an imaginary friend in England. The essays describe such scenes as children coming home from school during a snowstorm and families fleeing an Indian attack.
Crevecoeur supported the British during the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783). In his Sketches of Eighteenth Century America (published in 1925, after his death), he accused the patriots of greed and the abuse of power in their struggle for independence. Crevecoeur served as French consul to the United States from 1783 to 1790 and spent the rest of his life in France. He died on Nov. 12, 1813.
