Itinerant observations in America

About this book

Before he became editor of the London Magazine and a prolific novelist, Edward Kimber traveled to America and recorded his impressions. Itinerant Observations in America provides a vivid record of life in colonial America. This edition presents the work as it was first published sporadically during the mid-1740s in the London Magazine. Also included are edited and annotated versions of the poems that Kimber wrote during his American sojourn. Kimber's descriptions of the natural landscape are filled with poetic imagery, while his descriptions of the towns, buildings, and fortifications are realistic and original. For many places he visited, especially coastal Georgia, Kimber's narrative provides unique evidence concerning their contemporary appearance. Itinerant Observations in America is also important because it inaugurates what would become an important genre of American literature during the next century - the outsider's observations. Previous American travel narratives were largely promotional accounts written to encourage colonization, but Kimber's purpose is more artistic than rhetorical. While the promotion literature sought to persuade its readers, Kimber seeks to inform and entertain his. Like subsequent European visitors - Chastellux, Chateaubriand, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, De Tocqueville, Dickens, and Anthony Trollope - Kimber's point of view remains that of an outsider.