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Travel from Gert Jan Bestebreurtje

Travel from Gert Jan Bestebreurtje


By Michael Stillman

The latest offering from Gert Jan Bestebreurtje, Antiquarian Bookseller, is Travel. The Library of the Dutch Collector Berend Ten Hoove. Do not be fooled by the Dutch collector or Dutch bookseller. While there is certainly Dutch material in this catalogue, there is also a great number of English and French language works, and a surprising amount of Americana. Indeed, this is not the first time we have discovered a trove of English and American items hidden off in the Netherlands in Bestebreurtje's inventory. You just may find some books you cannot locate in their native country secreted away in this place where you might least expect to find it. Here are a few samples, with a tilt to those in the English language.

Item 30 is one of the major explorations of French America. The French would be driven from the North American continent as a result of the French and Indian War (Seven Years War), but prior to 1763, they were a major force. Pierre Charlevoix was a Jesuit missionary sent by the government of France to report on French settlements and surrounding territories in Canada and Louisiana (the old, much larger Louisiana). His report was first published in French in 1744. This is the first English translation from 1761, Journal of a voyage to North America. Undertaken by order of the French king containing the geographical description and natural history of that country, particularly Canada. Charlevoix's journeys took him through the Great Lakes region and down the Mississippi as well as eastern Canada. Not only does he provide accounts of the French communities, but of the native Indians as well. Priced at €2,250 (Euros, or approximately US $2,667).

The Marquis de Lafayette is one of America's greatest Revolutionary War heroes, though he was a Frenchman, not an American. He came to America in 1776 at the age of 19, whereupon he was given a command by Washington and served honorably throughout the war. His influence in garnering French assistance for the cause was even more notable. When he left America at the close of the Revolution in 1783, he was deeply admired by the citizens of his adopted nation and a great friend of Washington and other American leaders. Lafayette did not again set foot on American soil for over 40 years. When he did return, it was as a beloved hero. He embarked on a tour which took him through all 24 states, and lasted over a year. He met with 88-year-old former President John Adams in Massachusetts, and was seated between former Presidents Jefferson and Madison for dinner in Virginia. He visited the White House while Monroe was president, and again while John Quincy Adams was its resident. He met with future President Andrew Jackson in Tennessee. Everywhere he went, he was greeted by enthusiastic crowds and the most important of local officials. He was guest of honor at ceremonies marking the beginning of construction of the Bunker Hill monument, and took back soil from the hill, which would be sprinkled over his grave. Finally, 13 months after his arrival, Lafayette bid his last goodbyes to America and boarded a ship for his final return to France. This amazing tour is recounted in the two-volume book Lafayette en Amerique en 1824 et 1825, ou journal d'un voyage aux Etats Unis, written by his personal secretary Auguste Levasseur, who accompanied him. It was published in 1829. Supposedly, when General Pershing led American forces into France in World War I to free that country from the Germans, he said, "Lafayette, we are here." Item 95. €395 (US $468).

Travel from Gert Jan Bestebreurtje

English explorer and privateer George Anson.


It was one of the least successful attempts at African colonization. Philip Beaver led three ships from England to the island of Bulama, off the West African coast. However, most of the settlers had no practical experience in building a colony, were undisciplined, and not that interested in hard work. Many quickly deserted for the mainland. Beaver labored hard to make the colony a success, but many of his ill-suited remaining settlers took ill and died. Two years later, Beaver and those still left exited for nearby Sierra Leone. Beaver returned to England and served in the Royal Navy for the remainder of his life. Item 10 is Beaver's African memoranda: relative to an attempt to establish a British settlement on the island of Bulama... published in 1805. €1,450 (US $1,721).

Orphaned at the age of two, Frances Wright read books about the young United States while living with her uncle, a professor at Scotland's Glasgow College. She was so intrigued that she undertook a two-year tour with her sister. The result was her book, Views of society and manners in America... She was impressed by the Americans but not slavery. She returned to set up a community in Tennessee known as Nashoba. She hoped it would be a place where slaves could work and earn profits to pay for their freedom. However, it never worked out that well, and she paid to send some slaves to freedom in Haiti and moved to the utopian New Harmony community in Indiana. She would take up many progressive causes, abolition, women's rights, the end of capital punishment, and birth control, and relocate again to New York City. She was an important and influential voice for these causes for two decades. However, her atheistic views curtailed her popularity, and fewer people came to listen as the years went by. Her early work on America (this is a second American edition from 1821) is item 183. €170 ($201).

George Anson led five ships from England to South America in 1740 to harass Spanish shipping in the area. The expedition was both a monumental disaster and enormous success. Two of his ships returned before reaching their goal, two sunk. Most of his men died, and many survivors suffered grievously. However, before it was over, Anson ended up being only the second Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, and he captured one Spanish ship laden with immense wealth, enabling him to return to Britain a wealthy man. Item 3 is an engraved portrait of Anson €195 (US $231). Other Anson works offered are the first Dutch and first French editions of his official account, and a relation by some of the survivors of one of his ships which sunk.

You may find Gert Jan Bestebreurtje Antiquarian Bookseller on the web at www.gertjanbestebreurtje.com or reach them by phone at +31 (0)347 322 548.