thumb|250px|Friedrich Gerstäcker

Friedrich Gerstäcker (May 10, 1816 in Hamburg – May 31, 1872 in Braunschweig) was a German traveler, novelist, and adventurer.

Biography

He was the son of Friedrich Gerstäcker (1790–1825), a celebrated opera singer. After being apprenticed to a commercial house, he learned farming in Saxony. In 1837, however, not yet 21 and with a yen for adventure instilled from reading Robinson Crusoe, he went to America and wandered over a large part of the United States, supporting himself by whatever work came to hand.

He became fireman on a steamboat, deck hand, farmer, silversmith, and merchant. After wandering through most of the United States, spending some time as a hunter and trapper in the Indian Territory, and in 1842 keeping a hotel at Point Coupée, Louisiana, he returned to Germany six adventurous years later in 1843. On his return, he lived first at Dresden and then at Brunswick. though this was denied by Lerner, the author of Brigadoon.

The Friedrich-Gerstäcker-Gesellschaft e.V. (Fr. G. society) founded in 1978 in Braunschweig offers more information about Gerstäcker and runs a museum about his work.

Legacy and prizes

In 1947 the city of Braunschweig, Germany, founded the Friedrich Gerstäcker Prize, the oldest German prize for young adult literature. The prize is awarded bi-annually "to recognize linguistically sophisticated works that promote to young adults tolerance, cosmpolitanism, and openness towards the traditions, beliefs, and values of other cultures."

In 1957 Gerstäcker was made an honorary citizen of Arkansas.

In 1986 then governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, declared 10th of May, Friedrich Gerstäcker's birthday, as "Friedrich Gerstäcker Day".

Works (selection)

  • Streif- und Jagdzüge durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika (Rambling and Hunting in the United States of North America), 1844.
  • Die Regulatoren in Arkansas (The Arkansas Regulators), 1845.
  • Der deutschen Auswanderer Fahrten und Schicksale (Travels and Fates of the German Emigrants). Leipzig 1846.
  • Mississippi-Bilder (Mississippi Images). 3 volumes, Leipzig 1847.
  • Die Flußpiraten des Mississippi (The Pirates of the Mississippi). 3 volumes, Leipzig 1848.
  • Gold. Ein californisches Lebensbild aus dem Jahre 1849 (Gold. An Image of Californian Life from the year 1848). 3 volumes, Jena 1858.
  • Neue Reisen in Nordamerika, Mexiko, Ecuador, Westindien und Venezuela (New Travels in North America, Mexico, Ecuador, the West Indies, and Venezuela). 3 Volumes, Jena 1868.
  • Black & White; In the Red River Swamps. Bilingual edition, translated and edited by Mark Gruettner and Robert Bareikis, Tintamarre, Shreveport 2006, .

Secondary literature

  • Couch, Richard Allen: Friedrich Gerstäcker's novels of the American frontier. Dissertation, University of Iowa, Iowa City 1999 / UMI, Ann Arbor, MI 2000.
  • Ostwald, Thomas: Friedrich Gerstäcker: Leben und Werk; Biographie eines Ruhelosen. Friedrich-Gerstäcker-Gesellschaft / Edition Corsar, Braunschweig 2007 (408 pp.), (major biography, in German language; the title translates: F. G.: Life and Work[s]; Biography of a restless one.).
  • Sammons, Jeffrey L.: Ideology, nemesis, fantasy: Charles Sealsfield, Friedrich Gerstäcker, Karl May, and other German novelists of America. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 1998, .
  • Woodson, Lerry Henry: American Negro Slavery in the works of Friederich Strubberg, Friedrich Gerstäcker and Otto Ruppers: A dissertation etc. Catholic University of America Press, Washington 1949.
  • Zangerl, Anton: Friedrich Gerstäcker (1816–1872), Romane und Erzählungen: Struktur und Gehalt. Peter Lang: Bern 1999, (dissertation, in German; the title translates: F.G., novels and stories: structure and contents).

References

  • Germelshausen (English translation)
  • Biography and extracts
  • Gerstäcker Museum