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William Joseph Snelling
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William Joseph Snelling
William Joseph Snelling (December 26, 1804 – December 24, 1848) was an American adventurer, writer, poet, and journalist. His short stories about Native American life were the first to attempt to accurately portray the Native Americans living on the plains and are among the first attempts at realism by an American writer. Snelling's short story collections were among the earliest in the United States. He wrote for New England and New York City periodicals on subjects such as American writing, gambling, and prison conditions.
William Joseph Snelling was born on December 26, 1804, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Josiah Snelling, was an officer in the army, and his mother was Elizabeth Bell. His mother died when he was six years old, and Snelling moved outside Boston to live with relatives and attend school. At age 14, Snelling entered West Point.
Two years later, Snelling left West Point and gradually moved west. He lived with the Dakota tribe of American Indians for a winter. In 1821, Snelling reached his father's military post at Fort St. Anthony (later Fort Snelling) at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. William Joseph Snelling stayed there for five years, trading in furs and exploring the surroundings. During his time with the Dakota, he had learned their language and customs, and he worked as an interpreter between the Indian Agency and the Indians. For example, he helped negotiate the resolution of hostilities between the Dakota and the Chippewa and Winnebago tribes.
On September 15, 1826, at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers (now Crawford County, WI), William J. Snelling married Dionice Fournier. She was born in Villeret, Canton of Berne, Switzerland in 1810. In 1821 she immigrated to the Red River Colony/Selkirk settlement (in the portion of Rupertsland that would, in 1870, become Manitoba, Canada) with her widowed mother and three siblings. Dionice died in 1827 outside of Fort Crawford. Josiah Snelling died in 1828, and William Joseph Snelling moved on.
Snelling returned to Boston and entered the writing field. Over the next 20 years, he wrote pieces for American Monthly, Boston Book, the Boston Herald, the New England Galaxy, Joseph T. Buckingham's New England Magazine, North American Review, and Samuel Griswold Goodrich's Token. Snelling expressed frank opinions on American society and proposed social reforms, earning him both praise and enmity. Truth: A New Year's Gift for Scribblers is an early example. The piece, written in 1831, satirizes American letters. As editor of the New England Galaxy, Snelling initiated an anti-gambling movement among Boston's newspapers. He was sued for libel and fought back by publishing his editorials in pamphlet form, called "Exposé of the Vice of Gaming", in 1833. He used the proceeds to pay his legal costs. He later served four months in jail for drunkenness. The experience led him in 1837 to take on prison reform with his The Rat-Trap; or Cogitations of a Convict in the House of Correction.
Snelling earned his greatest fame as a writer of short stories about his experiences on the American frontier. He realized that the lifestyle of the Plains Indians was under threat, and he deemed the popular characterization of Indians in American literature to be stereotyped and inaccurate. He thus tried for realism in his stories, making him one of the earliest American writers to do so. In 1830, Snelling published a compilation of ten of his frontier stories as Tales of the Northwest; or, Sketches of Indian Life and Character; this is one of the earliest short story collections published in the United States.
According to Israel Augustus Newhall, writing half a century after the fact, we get this glimpse of young William J. Snelling as he prepared Tales of the Northwest for publication: "Among those who at this time – about 1829 – frequented the office, was William J. Snelling, then a young man of twenty-five years. His interesting work delineated scenes and experiences beyond the frontier, giving graphic pictures of his life far away from any civilized community, was then in process of printing, and was, I believe, the first book he ever issued. It fell to my lot to read the first proofs. Mr. Snelling was a striking character; vigorous, fearless and industrious. He was born in Boston, was a son of Col. Josiah Snelling, and educated at West Point."
Modern ethnographers still recognize his works as the first accurate literary portrayal of the lifestyle of the Plains Indians. In "The Last of the Iron Hearts", Snelling wrote, "[We] beg leave to assure our readers, that the Indian is not the ferocious brute of Hubbard and Mather, or the brilliant, romantic, half-French, half-Celtic Mohegan and Yemassee created by Symmes and Cooper." He further claimed that one "must live, emphatically, live, with Indians; share with them their lodges, their food, and their blankets, for years, before he can comprehend their ideas, or enter into their feelings."
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William Joseph Snelling
William Joseph Snelling (December 26, 1804 – December 24, 1848) was an American adventurer, writer, poet, and journalist. His short stories about Native American life were the first to attempt to accurately portray the Native Americans living on the plains and are among the first attempts at realism by an American writer. Snelling's short story collections were among the earliest in the United States. He wrote for New England and New York City periodicals on subjects such as American writing, gambling, and prison conditions.
William Joseph Snelling was born on December 26, 1804, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Josiah Snelling, was an officer in the army, and his mother was Elizabeth Bell. His mother died when he was six years old, and Snelling moved outside Boston to live with relatives and attend school. At age 14, Snelling entered West Point.
Two years later, Snelling left West Point and gradually moved west. He lived with the Dakota tribe of American Indians for a winter. In 1821, Snelling reached his father's military post at Fort St. Anthony (later Fort Snelling) at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. William Joseph Snelling stayed there for five years, trading in furs and exploring the surroundings. During his time with the Dakota, he had learned their language and customs, and he worked as an interpreter between the Indian Agency and the Indians. For example, he helped negotiate the resolution of hostilities between the Dakota and the Chippewa and Winnebago tribes.
On September 15, 1826, at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers (now Crawford County, WI), William J. Snelling married Dionice Fournier. She was born in Villeret, Canton of Berne, Switzerland in 1810. In 1821 she immigrated to the Red River Colony/Selkirk settlement (in the portion of Rupertsland that would, in 1870, become Manitoba, Canada) with her widowed mother and three siblings. Dionice died in 1827 outside of Fort Crawford. Josiah Snelling died in 1828, and William Joseph Snelling moved on.
Snelling returned to Boston and entered the writing field. Over the next 20 years, he wrote pieces for American Monthly, Boston Book, the Boston Herald, the New England Galaxy, Joseph T. Buckingham's New England Magazine, North American Review, and Samuel Griswold Goodrich's Token. Snelling expressed frank opinions on American society and proposed social reforms, earning him both praise and enmity. Truth: A New Year's Gift for Scribblers is an early example. The piece, written in 1831, satirizes American letters. As editor of the New England Galaxy, Snelling initiated an anti-gambling movement among Boston's newspapers. He was sued for libel and fought back by publishing his editorials in pamphlet form, called "Exposé of the Vice of Gaming", in 1833. He used the proceeds to pay his legal costs. He later served four months in jail for drunkenness. The experience led him in 1837 to take on prison reform with his The Rat-Trap; or Cogitations of a Convict in the House of Correction.
Snelling earned his greatest fame as a writer of short stories about his experiences on the American frontier. He realized that the lifestyle of the Plains Indians was under threat, and he deemed the popular characterization of Indians in American literature to be stereotyped and inaccurate. He thus tried for realism in his stories, making him one of the earliest American writers to do so. In 1830, Snelling published a compilation of ten of his frontier stories as Tales of the Northwest; or, Sketches of Indian Life and Character; this is one of the earliest short story collections published in the United States.
According to Israel Augustus Newhall, writing half a century after the fact, we get this glimpse of young William J. Snelling as he prepared Tales of the Northwest for publication: "Among those who at this time – about 1829 – frequented the office, was William J. Snelling, then a young man of twenty-five years. His interesting work delineated scenes and experiences beyond the frontier, giving graphic pictures of his life far away from any civilized community, was then in process of printing, and was, I believe, the first book he ever issued. It fell to my lot to read the first proofs. Mr. Snelling was a striking character; vigorous, fearless and industrious. He was born in Boston, was a son of Col. Josiah Snelling, and educated at West Point."
Modern ethnographers still recognize his works as the first accurate literary portrayal of the lifestyle of the Plains Indians. In "The Last of the Iron Hearts", Snelling wrote, "[We] beg leave to assure our readers, that the Indian is not the ferocious brute of Hubbard and Mather, or the brilliant, romantic, half-French, half-Celtic Mohegan and Yemassee created by Symmes and Cooper." He further claimed that one "must live, emphatically, live, with Indians; share with them their lodges, their food, and their blankets, for years, before he can comprehend their ideas, or enter into their feelings."