Newberry Library (Chicago, IL 60610-3380)
Carla Zecher (Project Director: November 2005 to November 2010)
RZ-50594-06
Collaborative Research
Research Programs
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[Grant products]
Totals:
$70,000 (approved)
$70,000 (awarded)
Grant period:
7/1/2006 – 6/30/2010
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Translating a "French Robinson Crusoe" of the Americas: The Memoir of Dumont de Montigny
Preparation of an annotated English translation of the memoir of Dumont de Montigny. (24 months)
The Newberry Library requests funding to support preparation of an English translation of the memoir of a French soldier, Dumont de Montigny, who settled in Louisiana during the first half of the 18th century. This memoir, preserved in a manuscript in the Newberry collections, is a remarkable mixture of a colonial report, an autobiography, a picaresque narrative, a natural history, and an ethnography. It stands out as a seminal work of French colonial Louisiana. The English translation will be a vital new source for scholars and others interested in the history of the first 100 years of colonial settlement in the greater Mississippi Valley, and it will allow the incorporation of this extraordinary text into the American literary heritage.
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