William Joseph Snelling Explained

William Joseph Snelling (December 26, 1804  - December 24, 1848) was an American adventurer, writer, poet, and journalist. His short stories about Native American life were the first to attempt to accurately portray the Native Americans living on the plains and are among the first attempts at realism by an American writer. Snelling's short story collections were among the earliest in the United States. He wrote for New England and New York City periodicals on subjects such as American writing, gambling, and prison conditions.

Early life

William Joseph Snelling was born on December 26, 1804, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Josiah Snelling, was an officer in the army, and his mother was Elizabeth Bell. His mother died when he was six years old, and Snelling moved outside Boston to live with relatives and attend school. At age 14, Snelling entered West Point.[1]

Life on "the frontier"

Two years later, Snelling left West Point and gradually moved west. He lived with the Dakota tribe of American Indians for a winter. In 1821, Snelling reached his father's military post at Fort St. Anthony (later Fort Snelling) at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. William Joseph Snelling stayed there for five years, trading in furs and exploring the surroundings. During his time with the Dakota, he had learned their language and customs, and he worked as an interpreter between the Indian Agency and the Indians. For example, he helped negotiate the resolution of hostilities between the Dakota and the Chippewa and Winnebago tribes.

On September 15, 1826, at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers (now Crawford County, WI), William J. Snelling married Dionice Fournier.[2] She was born in Villeret, Canton of Berne, Switzerland in 1810.[3] In 1821 she immigrated to the Red River Colony/Selkirk settlement (in the portion of Rupertsland that would, in 1870, become Manitoba, Canada) with her widowed mother and three siblings.[4] Dionice died in 1827 outside of Fort Crawford. Josiah Snelling died in 1828, and William Joseph Snelling moved on.

Writing career (and his social / political activism)

Snelling returned to Boston and entered the writing field. Over the next 20 years, he wrote pieces for American Monthly, Boston Book, the Boston Herald, the New England Galaxy, Joseph T. Buckingham's New England Magazine, North American Review, and Samuel Griswold Goodrich's Token.[1] Snelling expressed frank opinions on American society and proposed social reforms, earning him both praise and enmity.[5] is an early example. The piece, written in 1831, satirizes American letters. As editor of the New England Galaxy, Snelling initiated an anti-gambling movement among Boston's newspapers. He was sued for libel and fought back by publishing his editorials in pamphlet form, called "Exposé of the Vice of Gaming", in 1833. He used the proceeds to pay his legal costs. He later served four months in jail for drunkenness. The experience led him in 1837 to take on prison reform with his The Rat-Trap; or Cogitations of a Convict in the House of Correction.[6]

Tales of the Northwest and other "Indian" and "frontier" short stories

Snelling earned his greatest fame as a writer of short stories about his experiences on the American frontier. He realized that the lifestyle of the Plains Indians was under threat, and he deemed the popular characterization of Indians in American literature to be stereotyped and inaccurate. He thus tried for realism in his stories, making him one of the earliest American writers to do so. In 1830, Snelling published a compilation of ten of his frontier stories as Tales of the Northwest; or, Sketches of Indian Life and Character; this is one of the earliest short story collections published in the United States.[1]

According to Israel Augustus Newhall, writing half a century after the fact, we get this glimpse of young William J. Snelling as he prepared Tales of the Northwest for publication: "Among those who at this time – about 1829 – frequented the office, was William J. Snelling, then a young man of twenty-five years. His interesting work delineated scenes and experiences beyond the frontier, giving graphic pictures of his life far away from any civilized community, was then in process of printing, and was, I believe, the first book he ever issued. It fell to my lot to read the first proofs. Mr. Snelling was a striking character; vigorous, fearless and industrious. He was born in Boston, was a son of Col. Josiah Snelling, and educated at West Point."[7]

Modern ethnographers still recognize his works as the first accurate literary portrayal of the lifestyle of the Plains Indians. In "The Last of the Iron Hearts", Snelling wrote, "[We] beg leave to assure our readers, that the Indian is not the ferocious brute of Hubbard and Mather, or the brilliant, romantic, half-French, half-Celtic Mohegan and Yemassee created by Symmes and Cooper."[8] He further claimed that one "must live, emphatically, live, with Indians; share with them their lodges, their food, and their blankets, for years, before he can comprehend their ideas, or enter into their feelings."[9]

Boston years: other fiction and journalism (1830-1838)

Throughout the 1830s, while based in his native Boston, Snelling's literary output was prodigious. He wrote several books, dozens of short stories and poems, as well as book reviews and other political journalism and social satire. Throughout these same years, Snelling was frequently employed as the editor of one or another of various Boston newspapers.

Soon after Tales of the Northwest came Tales of travels west of the Mississippi, A brief and impartial history of the life and actions of Andrew Jackson, president of the United States (1831), Tales of travels in Central Africa (1831), and Truth, a gift for scribblers, in 1832.

Frederic Hudson had this to say of Snelling's time as editor of the New-England Galaxy:[10]

In the spring of 1838, Snelling left Boston for New York City, with some regret. He wrote in the Censor: "Cradle of my infancy, school of my manhood, grave of my hopes, farewell, I think, forever. I have done thee some service, and thou knowest it - how I have been thanked thou also knowest. With all thy faults, I love thee still... Boston is no place for a man to live in. He can obtain but small compensation for his labor, and this half the time, he cannot get. Still, Boston forever! There was I born, and there would I gladly lay my wearied bones. Fare thee well! Boston." Snelling spent most of the next nine years in New York City, but returned to his home town in 1847 to become editor of the Boston Herald, a position he held until his death in late 1848.[11]

New York years (1838-1847)

Snelling spent the years 1838 to 1847 in New York City, editing a number of newspapers and magazines. Upon his arrival in New York, Snelling started the Censor.[12] For a short time, he also was editor of the Polyanthos,[13] and worked as a writer for Wooldridge's Whip and Satirist of New-York and Brooklin in 1842.[14] Snelling was a key player in the weekly Sunday Flash, while at the same time served as editor of the "more respectable" weekly the Sunday Times, along "with a young editorial partner named Walter Whitman." Later, in mid-1843, the Sunday Times merged with Mordecai Noah's Weekly Messenger.[15] Through the Sunday Flash, Snelling developed a notorious reputation for his pioneering role in what Patricia Cline Cohen, Timothy J. Gilfoyle and Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz describe as the "Flash Press," New York City "small weekly newspapers ... aimed to entertain and enlighten literate sporting men about leisure-time activities and erotic entertainments available" in that city, especially in the period from late 1841 to early 1843. "Distinguished by a trenchant, mocking humor and a titillating brew of gossip about prostitutes, theatrical denizens, and sports contests, the papers offered guidance to men young and old intent on navigating the new world of unrestricted pleasure and commercialized leisure in the city. They frequently defended such behaviors in the vernacular of republicanism and democracy."[16]

Return to Boston (1847-1848)

In the spring of 1847, Snelling returned to Boston to become editor of the Boston Herald, a position he held until his death in late 1848. In these final 18 months of his life, Snelling covered the endgame of the Mexican-American War, as well as the 1848 presidential election. Under Snelling, the Boston Herald took a strong position in support of the eventual winner of that election, Zachary Taylor of the Whig Party, who defeated both Democrat Lewis Cass and former president Martin Van Buren of the Free Soil Party.[17]

Death

Snelling died on December 24, 1848.[1] "Within four hours after the death of Mr. Snelling, his father-in-law, Mr. Simon Jordan, (with whom Mr. S. lived,) fell from his chair and suddenly expired also."[18]

Critical reception

Nineteenth century

Several years after Snelling's death, this assessment of Snelling and his work appeared in The Cyclopaedia of Anecdotes of Literature and the Fine Arts:[19] Contemporary biographer Mary R. Reichardt credits Snelling with "creating . . . engaging and vigorous tales based on Native-American life and legend as well as stories of the cultural conflict resulting from the early white settlements on the frontier", although the stories "lapse at times into sentimentality and didacticism."[6]

Selected works of William Joseph Snelling

Books

Snelling's authorship either verified, or generally accepted

Writing for Samuel Griswold Goodrich, under the pseudonym of Solomon Bell:

Snelling's authorship either suggested, yet still unproved, or otherwise disputed

Book reviews, "Literary Notices" etc.

Short stories

"Indian" or "Frontier" short stories

"Other" short stories

Non-fiction

Articles

Autobiographical Sketches

Biographical Sketches

News/Commentary

Satire

Poetry

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Reichardt 336.
  2. Web site: Alphabetical index to Wisconsin, Crawford County, marriages, 1816-1866, Joseph Snelling married Dionice Fournier, p.28 . 2024-02-19 . www.gengophers.com.
  3. "Schweiz, Katholische und Reformiert Kirchenbücher, 1418-1996",, St. Imier, Canton of Berne, Switzerland. Entry for baptism of Dionice Fournier, 15 Jul 1810.
  4. Book: Bovay, Emile . Le Canada et Les Suisses, 1604-1974 . Edition Universitaires, Fribourg, Suisse . 1976 . Fribourg, Switzerland . 191–192 . French . Canada and the Swiss, 1604-1974.
  5. Reichardt 336–7.
  6. Reichardt 337.
  7. Israel Augustus Newhall and Howard Mudge Newhall, The Legacy of an Octogenarian, (Lynn, Mass: the Nichols Press, 1897), p. 75.
  8. Quoted in Reichardt 337.
  9. Preface to Tales, quoted in Reichardt 337.
  10. Frederic Hudson, Journalism in the United States, from 1690-1872 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1873), Chapter XXIII.
  11. William J. Snelling, "Farewell to Boston," The Censor, Tuesday, April 10, 1838, p. 2, col. 1
  12. Patricia Cline Cohen, Timothy J. Gilfoyle & Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, The Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008),, p. 32
  13. The Flash Press, p. 44.
  14. The Flash Press, p.96.
  15. The Flash Press, p.110.
  16. The Flash Press, p.1
  17. See the various issues of the Boston Herald from April 1847 through November 1838.
  18. The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Vol.III, January 1849, Boston, p. 103.
  19. Development of the American Short Story, quoted in Reichardt 337.
  20. Kazlit Arvine, The Cyclopaedia of Anecdotes of Literature and the Fine Arts:

    Twentieth century

    Snelling's tales met with critical acclaim, and modern critics praise them. In 1923, Fred Lewis Pattee wrote that "his Indian stories are undoubtedly the best written during the early period [of American literature]"[19]

  21. See Laura L. Mielke, "Native to the Question: William Apess, Black Hawk, and the Sentimental Context of Early Native American Autobiography," in American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 26, No.2 (Spring 2002), footnote 21: "W. J. Snelling, "Life of Black Hawk," review of Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-SheKia-Kiak, or Black Hawk [sic], by Black Hawk, North American Review 40 (1835): 68, 69. Konkle also discusses this review in "Indian Literacy," 475-77. Snelling's argument that Apess's writing is not truly Indian in nature is particularly interesting given the assertion by Samuel Gardner Drake and the conjecture of subsequent bibliographers that Shelling and not Apess actually wrote Indian Nullification of the Unconstitutional Laws of Massachusetts Relative to the Marshpee Tribe (1835). Barry O'Connell does not believe Snelling authored Indian Nullification though he concedes he may have contributed to it. See his introduction to On Our Own Ground: The Complete Writings of William Apess, a Pequot, ed. Barry O'Connell (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992), xliii."

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