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Letters Written from the Banks of the Ohio

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Description

First published in French in 1792, Letters Written from the Banks of the Ohio tells the fascinating story of French aristocrat Claude-François de Lezay-Marnésia and the utopia he attempted to create in what is now Ohio.

Looking to build a perfect society in accordance with what France might have grow to be without the Revolution, Lezay-Marnésia bought more than twenty thousand acres of land along the banks of the Ohio River from the Scioto Company, which promised French aristocrats a fertile, conflict-free refuge. But hostilities between the U.S. Army and the Native American tribes who still lived at the land prevented the marquis from taking possession. Ruined and at the verge of madness, Lezay-Marnésia returned to France just as the Revolution was once taking a more radical turn. He barely escaped the guillotine before dying a couple of years later in poverty and desperation.

This edition of the Letters, introduced and edited by Benjamin Hoffmann and superbly translated by Alan J. Singerman, presents the work for the first time for the reason that beginning of the nineteenth century—and the first time ever in English. The volume features a wealthy selection of supplementary documents, including texts by Lezay-Marnésia’s son, Albert de Lezay-Marnésia, and the American novelist Hugh Henry Brackenridge. This fresh point of view at the young United States as it was once represented in French literature casts new light on an enchanting and tumultuous period in the history of two nations.

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