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GERSTACKER, FRIEDRICH (1816-1872)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 907 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GERSTACKER, See also:FRIEDRICH (1816-1872) , See also:German novelist and writer of travels, was See also:born at See also:Hamburg on the loth of May 1816, the son of Friedrich Gerstacker (1790-1825), a celebrated See also:opera See also:singer. After being apprenticed to a commercial See also:louse he learnt farming in See also:Saxony. In 1837, however, having imbibed from See also:Robinson Crusoe a See also:taste for See also:adventure, he went to See also:America and wandered over a large See also:part of the See also:United States, supporting himself by whatever See also:work came to See also:hand. In 1843 he returned to See also:Germany, to find himself, to his See also:great surprise, famous as an author. His See also:mother had shown his See also:diary, which he regularly sent See also:home, and which contained descriptions of his adventures in the New See also:World, to the editor of the Rosen, who published them in that periodical. These sketches having found favour with the public, Gerstacker issued them in 1844 under the See also:title Streif-und Jagdzilge durch See also:die Vereinigten Staaten Nordamerikas. In 1845 his first novel, Die Reguiatoren in See also:Arkansas, appeared, and hence-forth the stream of his productiveness flowed on uninterruptedly. From 1849 to 1852 Gerstacker travelled See also:round the world, visiting See also:North and See also:South America, See also:Polynesia and See also:Australia, and on his return settled in See also:Leipzig. In 186o he again went to South America, chiefly with a view to inspecting the German colonies there and See also:reporting on the possibility of diverting the stream of German See also:emigration in this direction. The result of his observations and experiences he recorded in Achtzehn Monate in Sudamerika (1862). In 1862 he accompanied See also:Duke Ernest of See also:Saxe-See also:Coburg-See also:Gotha to See also:Egypt and See also:Abyssinia, and on his return settled at Coburg, where he wrote a number of novels descriptive of the scenes he had visited. In 1867-1868 Gerstacker again undertook a See also:long See also:journey, visiting North America, See also:Venezuela and the See also:West Indies, and on his return lived first at See also:Dresden and then at See also:Brunswick, where he died on the 31st of May 1872.

His genial and straightforward See also:

character made him personally beloved; and his See also:works, dealing as they did with the great world hitherto hidden from the narrow " parochialism " of German See also:life, obtained an immense popularity. This was not due to any See also:graces of See also:style, in which they are singularly lacking; but the unstudied freshness of the author's descriptions, and his sturdy See also:humour, appealed to the wholesome instincts of the public. Many of his books were translated into See also:foreign See also:languages, notably into See also:English, and became widely known on both sides of the See also:Atlantic. His best works, from a See also:literary point of view; are, besides the above-mentioned Regulatoren, his Flusspiraten See also:des See also:Mississippi (1848); the novel See also:Tahiti (1854); his Australian See also:romance Die beiden Straflinge (1857); Aus dem Matrosenleben (1857); and Blau Wasser (1858). His Travels exist in an English See also:translation. Gerstacker's Gesammelte Schriften were published at See also:Jena in 44 vols. (1872—1879) ; a selection, edited by D. Theden in 24 vols. (1889—189o). See A. Karl, Friedrich Gerstacker, der Weitgereiste. Ein Lebensbild (1873).

End of Article: GERSTACKER, FRIEDRICH (1816-1872)

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