Subjects
Gilbert Imlay:
Citizen of the World
978 1 85196 859 6: 234x156mm: £60.00/$99.00
978 1 85196 579 3
This is the first book-length biography of the American Gilbert Imlay (c.1754–c.1828), Revolutionary War veteran, land-jobber, travel-writer, novelist, entrepreneur, agent provocateur – and infamous lover of Mary Wollstonecraft. The book concerns an Imlay little known to those working in Romantic Studies, so includes a reconstruction of Imlay’s early life in New Jersey; an account of his activities as a land speculator; the intriguing relations he had with a spate of historical characters; and his involvement with the Girondist government’s plans to launch a revolt in the Western Territory against the United States to destabilize Spanish rule in Louisiana. Previously undocumented details of Imlay’s participation in the transatlantic slave trade are also included.
Though his life provides a fascinating biography in its own right, the book highlights how Imlay unwittingly acted as an intermediary between figures of greater significance, whose diverse ideas, ambitions and schemes he frequently borrowed and disseminated across the Atlantic and across continents, whilst invariably serving his own interests.
Much of the text is based on original documentary sources (including Imlay’s largely unknown letters), gathered from a variety of rare book and manuscript collections. It will be of interest to scholars of Romanticism, politics, biography and book history.
Sample pages
Readership
Eighteenth-Century Studies, Romanticism, American Studies
Contents
Part I: America
1 Coming of Age in New Jersey
2 The Kentucky Land Bubble
3 Friends in High Places
4 Diversifying Business: The Triangular Trade
Part II: England
5 'Not to captivate but to inform': The Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America
6 'Come to these Arcadian regions, where there is room for millions': The Emigrants
Part III: France
7 'A whirl of projects and schemes'; Or, All Is Fair in Love and Trade
8: Citizen Imlay and the Conspiracy against the US
Part IV: Conclusion
9 Imlay’s After-Life
Reviews
'[Verhoeven's] ten year's archival research...add substantially to our picture of Imlay, despite the paucity of data.'
– Lucasta Miller, The Times Literary Supplement
'The author is especially adept at weaving complex empirical reconstruction of mundane circumstances with narrative and with the incisive analysis of thick textual materials.'
– Wayne Bodle, The William and Mary Quarterly
(read the full review here)
'Overall, Verhoeven's biography is a methodically researched and fluidly written account of Imlay's life.'
– Will Mackintosh, Journal of the Early Republic
'His [Imlay's] reverberating story as retold through Verhoeven's pioneering scholarship will be of interest to Romanticists, historians of early American history and scholars of eighteenth-century English and American literature and women's studies.'
– Marie Mulvey-Roberts, Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net (read the full review here)
'This deeply researched, richly contextual study is essential reading not just for scholars of the Godwin-Wollstonecraft circle, but for all those interested in the revolutionary upheavals of the late eighteenth century.'
– Pamela Clemit, Keats-Shelley Journal
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