NEW BOOK: CASTORLAND JOURNAL

Anne E. Bentley of the Massachusetts Historical Society writes:

Another of the new publications featuring an MHS collection is Castorland Journal: An Account of the Exploration and Settlement of Northern New York State by French Émigrés in the Years 1793 to 1797, by Simon Desjardins and Pierre Pharoux. This edition, just published by Cornell University Press, was edited by John A Gallucci, Assistant Professor of French at Colgate University, and contains a very useful introduction, footnotes, and appendices.

Desjardins and Pharoux were agents of the French Compagnie de New York, sent to manage the company's Castorland tract in what are today Lewis and Jefferson Counties. The journal recounts their travels, business meetings (with the likes of Philip Schuyler, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr) and the many obstacles they faced.

The original Castorland journal was given to the Historical Society in September 1863 by William Appleton, after having been found and purchased in a Paris bookstall.

To read the complete blog entry, see: New on our Bookshelves (www.masshist.org/blog/378)

For more information on the book, or to order, see: CASTORLAND JOURNAL (www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=5638)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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