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Francis Parkman (September 16, 1823 – November 8, 1893) was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts. He is best known as a historian, and particularly as author of Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life, and his monumental seven volume France and England in North America. These works are considered masterpieces of both history and literature.
He was a leading horticulturist, briefly a Professor of Horticulture at Harvard University and the first leader of the Arnold Arboretum, originator of several flowers, and author of several books on the topic.
In the summer of 1846, Parkman traveled west through Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas on an expedition with the stated aim of living with an American Indian tribe. His American guide happened to be married to a Sioux woman, and this connection led to Parkman spending a number of weeks living with a Sioux tribe in the area of Fort Laramie, Wyoming. The Sioux were still following their traditional way of life and the first-hand experience permitted Parkman to write about the American Indian with special authority. Writing in the era of "Manifest Destiny", Parkman believed that the displacement of American Indians represented inevitable progress, a triumph of "civilization" over "savagery."
A scion of a wealthy Boston family, Parkman had enough money to pursue his research without having to worry too much about finances. His financial stability was enhanced by his modest lifestyle, and later, by the royalties from his book sales. He was thus able to commit much of his time to research, as well as to travel. He travelled across North America, visiting most of the historical locations he wrote about, and made frequent trips to Europe seeking original documents with which to further his research.
Parkman's accomplishments are all the more impressive in light of the fact that he suffered from a debilitating neurological illness, which plagued him his entire life, and which was never properly diagnosed. He was often unable to walk, and for long periods he was effectively blind, being unable to stand but the slightest amount of light. Much of his research involved having people read documents to him, and much of his writing was written in the dark, or dictated to others.
Personal
As a young boy, 'Frank' Parkman was found to be of poor health, and was sent to live with his maternal grandfather, who owned a 3000 acre (12 km²) tract of wilderness in nearby Medford, Massachusetts, in the hopes that a more rustic lifestyle would sturdy him up some. In the four years he stayed there, Parkman developed his love of the forests, which would animate his historical research. Indeed, he would later summarize his books as "the history of the American forest." He learned how to sleep and hunt, and could survive in the wilderness like a true pioneer. He later even learned to ride bareback, a skill that would come in handy when he found himself living with the Sioux.
Parkman enrolled in Harvard University at age 16, and in his second year conceived the plan that would become his life's work. In 1843, at the age of 20, he traveled to Europe for eight months in the fashion of the Grand Tour. Parkman made expeditions through the Alps and the Apennine mountains, climbed Vesuvius, and even lived for a time in Rome, where he befriended Passionist monks who tried, unsuccessfully, to convert him to Catholicism. Upon graduation in 1846, he was persuaded to get a law degree, his father hoping such study would rid Parkman of his desire to write his history of the forests. It did no such thing, and after finishing law school Parkman proceeded to fulfill his great plan. His family was somewhat appalled at Parkman's choice of life work, since at the time writing histories of the American wilderness was considered ungentlemanly. Serious historians would study ancient history, or after the fashion of the time, the Spanish Empire. Parkman's works would become so well-received, that by the end of his lifetime histories of early America has become the fashion.
Parkman was married once and had three children. A son died in childhood, and shortly afterwards, his wife died. He successfully raised two daughters, introducing them in to Boston society and seeing them both wed, with families of their own.
Selected works
- The Oregon Trail (1847)
- The Conspiracy of Pontiac (1851)
- ''Vassall Morton (1856), a novel
- The Pioneers of France in the New World (1865) Gutenberg
- The Book of Roses (1866)
- The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century (1867) Gutenberg
- La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (1869)
- The Old Régime in Canada (1874)
- Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV (1877)Gutenberg
- Montcalm and Wolfe (1884) Gutenberg
- A Half Century of Conflict (1892) vol 2 Gutenberg
- The Journals of Francis Parkman. Two Volumes. Edited by Mason Wade. New York: Harper, 1947.
- The Letters of Francis Parkman. Two Volumes. Edited by Wilbur R. Jacobs. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1960.
- The Battle for North America. Edited by John Tebbel. Doubleday 1948.
References
- Charles Haight Farnham, A Life of Francis Parkman. Boston: Little, Brown, 1900.
- Francis Parkman by Robert L. Gale (1973)
- Harvey Wish, The American Historian: A Social-intellectual History of the Writing of the American Past (1960) ch 6 on Parkman.
- Additional Online Books Regarding Parkman
External links
1823 births | 1893 deaths | American historians | Historians of the United States | Horticulturists | People from Massachusetts
"Francis Parkman"