Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur – 1926–2005

Born Michel-Guillaume-Saint-Jean de Crèvecoeur in France, Crèvecoeur served as a military officer and mapmaker in Canada, then traveled widely in the Ohio and Great Lakes region and became an American citizen in 1765. Caught up in the American Revolution—spurned by Patriots and Loyalists alike—he returned to Europe in 1780. Two years later, in London, using his American name, J. Hector St. John, he published Letters from an American Farmer, an optimistic vision of the young American democracy, which became an international bestseller and is still considered one of the best analyses of the American character ever written.