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Francis Parkman Biography

Francis Parkman

Francis Parkman Jr. (September 16, 1823 – November 8, 1893) was an American historian, best known as author of The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life and his monumental seven-volume France and England in North America. These works are still valued as historical sources and as literature. He was also a leading horticulturist, briefly a professor of Horticulture at Harvard University and author of several books on the topic. Parkman was a trustee of the Boston Athenæum from 1858 until his death in 1893.

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Francis Parkman Quotes

America was still a land of wonder. The ancient spell still hung unbroken over the wild, vast world of mystery beyond the sea,-a land of romance, adventure, and gold.

Adventure, Ancient, Gold, Land, Sea, Wonder

Four men are missing; R. , Sorel and two emigrants. They set out this morning after buffalo, and have not yet made their appearance; whether killed or lost, we cannot tell.

Men, Missing, Missing You, Morning

We were now, as I before mentioned, upon this St. Joseph's trail. It was evident, by the traces, that large parties were a few days in advance of us; and as we too supposed them to be Mormons, we had some apprehension of interruption.

Apprehension, Interruptions, Large, Mentioned, Party, Trails

France built its best colony on a principle of exclusion, and failed; England reversed the system, and succeeded.

England, Exclusion, Failed, France, Principles, Reversed

Early on the next morning we reached Kansas, about five hundred miles from the mouth of the Missouri.

Morning, Kansas, Mouths, Hundred, Miles

Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than a research, however patient and scrupulous, into special facts. Such facts may be detailed with the most minute exactness, and yet the narrative, taken as a whole, may be unmeaning or untrue. The narrator must seek to imbue himself with the life and spirit of the time. He must study events in their bearings near and remote; in the character, habits, and manners of those who took part in them. He must himself be, as it were, a sharer or a spectator of the action he describes.

Action, Character, Detailed, History, Imbue, Taken

Fort Leavenworth is in fact no fort, being without defensive works, except two block-houses.

Block, Defensive, Except, Fort, House, Two

The growth of New England was a result of the aggregate efforts of a busy multitude, each in his narrow circle toiling for himself, to gather competence or wealth. The expansion of New France was the achievement of a gigantic ambition striving to grasp a continent. It was a vain attempt.

Ambition, Circles, Achievement, Narrow, Attempt

The most momentous and far-reaching question ever brought to issue on this continent was: Shall France remain here, or shall she not?

Continent, France, Issue, Issues, Question, Reaching

We were in all four men with eight animals; for besides the spare horses led by Shaw and myself, an additional mule was driven along with us as a reserve in case of accident.

Accident, Animal, Eight, Four, Horse, Men

The young nobles, of whom there were many, were volunteers, who had paid their own expenses in expectation of a golden harvest, and they chafed in impatience and disgust. The religious element in the colony-unlike the former Huguenot emigration to Brazil--was evidently subordinate. The adventurers thought more of their fortunes than of their faith.

Adventurers, Expectations, Fortunes, Religious, Volunteer

We were now arrived at the close of our solitary journeyings along the St. Joseph's trail.

Trails, Solitary, Walking, Arrived, Close

Spanish civilization crushed the Indian. English civilization scorned and neglected him. French civilization embraced and cherished him.

Cherished, Civilization, Crushed, Neglected, Spanish

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.

Apology, Desk, England, Fruit, Glued, Pallid

Many of the Iroquois and Huron houses were of similar construction, the partitions being at the sides only, leaving a wide passage down the middle of the house.

House, Houses, Leaving, Sides, Similar, Two Sides

Here society is reduced to its original elements, the whole fabric of art and conventionality is struck rudely to pieces, and men find themselves suddenly brought back to the wants and resources of their original natures.

Art, Conventionality, Men, Original, Rude, Whole

It was a rich and gorgeous sunset - an American sunset; and the ruddy glow of the sky was reflected from some extensive pools of water among the shadowy copses in the meadow below.

Glowing, Rich, Shadowy, Sky, Sunset, Water

In the middle of the sixteenth century, Spain was the incubus of Europe. Gloomy and portentous, she chilled the world with her baneful shadow.

Baneful, Century, Europe, Shadow, Spain, World

Art, industry, and commerce, so long crushed and overborne, were stirring into renewed life, and a crowd of adventurous men, nurtured in war and incapable of repose, must seek employment for their restless energies in fields of peaceful enterprise.

Adventurous, Art, Energies, Men, Restless, War

When America was first made known to Europe, the part assumed by France on the borders of that new world was peculiar, and is little recognized. While the Spaniard roamed sea and land, burning for achievement, red-hot with bigotry and avarice, and while England, with soberer steps and a less dazzling result, followed in the path of discovery and gold-hunting, it was from France that those barbarous shores first learned to serve the ends of peaceful commercial industry.

Burning, Hunting, Land, Sea, Steps