Francis Parkman Jr.

September 16, 1823 (age 69)

Boston, Massachussets, United States

Parkman’s literary career had its real beginning after he returned from the West. Despite temporary illness and partial loss of sight, he managed to write a series of Oregon Trail recollections for the Knickerbocker Magazine. Published in 1849 as The California and Oregon Trail, the book’s title was misleading because Parkman had ventured nowhere near California. He keenly regretted the "publisher’s trick" of the mention of California as a stimulus to better sales. The book, in later editions called The Oregon Trail; Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life, became one of the best-selling personal narratives of the 19th century. The Oregon Trail served notice that a new writer, at home on the frontier as well as in staid, provincial Boston, had appeared. Parkman’s History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac, was his first historical work, a comprehensive survey of Anglo-French history and Indian affairs in North America, culminating in the great Ottawa chief’s "conspiracy" and Indian war of 1763. Parkman hoped to start work on the beginnings of the Anglo-French struggle immediately after Pontiac. But ill health delayed The Pioneers of France in the New World until 1865. He had, however, already written large parts of other volumes in his projected series. The Jesuits in North America (1867) paid tribute to the courage and martyrdom of the Catholic missionaries. In La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (1869; revised 1879) the French explorer is the heroic figure, caught in tragic circumstances yet facing frightening odds with immense courage. The theme of The Old Regime in Canada (1874) was France's attempt to tighten its hold on its American colony and its eventual failure. Parkman, like other historians of the romantic school, was less interested in the slow process of establishing a civilization than in its unusual, colorful incidents. In this volume, however, he came close to later social historians with such chapters as "Marriage and Population" and "Trade and Industry, " which were skillfully interwoven with his narrative. Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV (1877) celebrated the greatest man ever to represent his country in the New World. Parkman's masterpiece, Montcalm and Wolfe (1884), was acclaimed the finest in the series. With this judgment the author himself agreed. He was unsure of how to fill the chronological gap between Frontenac and Montcalm and Wolfe, but he managed to do so with A Half Century of Conflict (1892). The absence of a central character around whom to spin his narrative deprived this final volume in the series of the dramatic interest that enlivened its predecessors. The final link in his history France and England in North America is a fascinating but complex account of events leading up to the French and Indian War. Francis Parkman, Jr. died on November 8, 1893, at age 70 in Jamaica Plain. He is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Francis Parkman Jr.

Edit Profile

scholars

Background

Francis Parkman, Jr. was born on September 16, 1823, in Boston, Massachusetts, to the Reverend Francis Parkman Sr. , a member of a distinguished Boston family, and Caroline Parkman (Hall).

Education

He was taught Greek, Latin, and mathematics at the Chauncy Place School in Boston.

At Harvard, Parkman, a talented linguist, read almost as many books in foreign languages as in English, including the original texts of great historians of antiquity. He also devoured the major works of French literature and history. In serious archival studies he was encouraged by his teacher, the renowned historian Jared Sparks.

After a breakdown in health during his last year in college, he made a grand tour of Europe in 1844. His particular interest in the Roman Catholic church prompted him to observe it at close range, even living for a short time in a monastery in Rome. In the following year, he toured historic sites in the northwest of America and, to please his father, completed requirements for a law degree at Harvard. In the summer of 1846 he embarked on a journey to the Great Plains in which he traveled a portion of the Oregon Trail to Fort Laramie.

Career

Parkman’s literary career had its real beginning after he returned from the West. Despite temporary illness and partial loss of sight, he managed to write a series of Oregon Trail recollections for the Knickerbocker Magazine. Published in 1849 as The California and Oregon Trail, the book’s title was misleading because Parkman had ventured nowhere near California. He keenly regretted the "publisher’s trick" of the mention of California as a stimulus to better sales. The book, in later editions called The Oregon Trail; Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life, became one of the best-selling personal narratives of the 19th century.

The Oregon Trail served notice that a new writer, at home on the frontier as well as in staid, provincial Boston, had appeared. Parkman’s History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac, was his first historical work, a comprehensive survey of Anglo-French history and Indian affairs in North America, culminating in the great Ottawa chief’s "conspiracy" and Indian war of 1763.

Parkman hoped to start work on the beginnings of the Anglo-French struggle immediately after Pontiac. But ill health delayed The Pioneers of France in the New World until 1865. He had, however, already written large parts of other volumes in his projected series. The Jesuits in North America (1867) paid tribute to the courage and martyrdom of the Catholic missionaries. In La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (1869; revised 1879) the French explorer is the heroic figure, caught in tragic circumstances yet facing frightening odds with immense courage.

The theme of The Old Regime in Canada (1874) was France's attempt to tighten its hold on its American colony and its eventual failure. Parkman, like other historians of the romantic school, was less interested in the slow process of establishing a civilization than in its unusual, colorful incidents. In this volume, however, he came close to later social historians with such chapters as "Marriage and Population" and "Trade and Industry, " which were skillfully interwoven with his narrative.

Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV (1877) celebrated the greatest man ever to represent his country in the New World. Parkman's masterpiece, Montcalm and Wolfe (1884), was acclaimed the finest in the series. With this judgment the author himself agreed. He was unsure of how to fill the chronological gap between Frontenac and Montcalm and Wolfe, but he managed to do so with A Half Century of Conflict (1892). The absence of a central character around whom to spin his narrative deprived this final volume in the series of the dramatic interest that enlivened its predecessors. The final link in his history France and England in North America is a fascinating but complex account of events leading up to the French and Indian War.

Francis Parkman, Jr. died on November 8, 1893, at age 70 in Jamaica Plain. He is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Achievements

Francis Parkman was a remarkable historian, who brilliantly narrated the Anglo-French conflict for control of North America in a great multivolume work.

In 1915, Francis Parkman, Jr. was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.

In recognition of his talent and accomplishments, the Society for American Historians annually awards the Francis Parkman Prize for the best book on American history.

Works

A Half-Century of Conflict - Volume II A Half-Century of Conflict - Volume II

The Oregon Trail (Economy Editions) The Oregon Trail (Economy Editions)

La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West France and England in North America La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West France and England in North America

The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century

Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV

Historic Handbook of the Northern Tour Historic Handbook of the Northern Tour

A Half Century of Conflict - Volume I France and England in North America A Half Century of Conflict - Volume I France and England in North America

The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada

book
- Francis Parkman
  ( Best known as author of The Oregon Trail, Francis Park...)
- La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West France and England in North America
  (HardPress Classic Books Series)
- A Half-Century of Conflict - Volume II
- The Oregon Trail (Economy Editions)
- The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century
- Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV
- Historic Handbook of the Northern Tour
- A Life Of Francis Parkman ( Parkman, Francis, 1823-1893 ( France And England In North America) 2v Ct
- A Half Century of Conflict - Volume I France and England in North America
- The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada

Views

Quotations: "If any pale student, glued to his desk, here seek an apology for a way of life whose natural fruits is that pallid and emasculate scholarship of which New England has had too many examples, it will be far better that this sketch had not been written. For the student there is, in its season, no better place than the saddle, and no better companion than the rifle or the oar. "

Connections

On May 13, 1850, Francis Parkman, Jr. married Catherine Scollay Bigelow, by whom he had three children.

Father:: Francis Parkman, Sr.
Mother:: Caroline Parkman (Hall)
Sister:: Elizabeth Willard Shaw
Sister:: Caroline Hall Cordner (Parkman)
Sister:: Mary Brooks Brooks (Parkman)
half-sister:: Sarah Cabot Atkinson (Parkman)
Wife:: Catherine Scollay Parkman (Bigelow)
Daughter:: Catherine Scollay Coolidge (Parkman)
Daughter:: Grace Coffin (Parkman)
Son:: Francis Parkman
Brother:: George Parkman
Brother:: John Eliot Parkman

Main Photo