Hoffman, Charles Fenno. A Winter in the West. By a New -Yorker. (2 volume set) Great Americana Series. Readex Microprint Corporation, 1966. [12177]
Two volumes in green cloth, 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches, each with a private bookplate, bindings fine. 337 + 346 clean pages. Very good. Hardcover.
A facsimile reprint of the Harper & Brothers edition of 1835.
"Most early descriptions of western America were composed by individuals who were not writers by profession. An exception was A Winter in the West, written by Charles Fenno Hoffman, a man who attained distinction in American letters as an editor, poet, and novelist during the first half of the nineteenth century. Partly for reasons of health, Hoffman resigned the editorship of the Knickerbocker in 1833 and set out on horseback for a winter tour of the Midwest...From various points in his journey he sent back letters containing his impressions of the country for publication in the New York American. The letters aroused considerable interest...Hoffman won praise both in America and in England for his ability to capture what was most typical of each locality he visited...the loveliness of the countryside was by no means his exclusive preoccupation. He gloried in the history of the region, short though it was, sought our battlefields and places of historic interest, and listened raptly to the stories associated with events of an earlier day. The bustling commercial activity of towns like Pittsburgh, Detroit, St. Louis, and Cincinnati filled him with admiration." - Foreword.
Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806-1884), b. New York City; d. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was born to a prominent family, his father being the Attorney General of New York, and other close relatives served in the US House of Representatives and in the US Senate. An accident when a lad of 11 years resulted in the amputation of one of his legs. Charles was educated at New York University and Columbia College. He practiced law for a few years before establishing The Knickerbocker magazine; later editing the New England Magazine and the American Monthly. He was the author of several travel books treating with the American West. He was remembered as an accomplished poet and song-writer. In his later years he suffered from insanity and spent 30 years in the Harrisburg State Hospital.
