William Austin (writer)

William Austin (born March 2, 1778 in Lunenburg , Massachusetts , † June 27, 1841 in Charlestown , Massachusetts) was an American lawyer , politician of the Democratic Republican Party and writer .

life and work

Austin studied at Harvard College (AB 1798) and then entered the service of the US Navy , where he worked for two years as an instructor and chaplain. He then studied law at the Lincoln's Inn in London until 1803 and then opened a law firm in Charlestown, which ensured him a modest income until his death. Throughout his life he was actively involved in the political life of the state of Massachusetts - in 1806 he fought a duel with James Henderson Elliot , the son of a federal judge, whom Austin had accused of politically motivated wrongdoing in a newspaper article; Austin was only slightly injured with two grazing shots, Elliott not at all. Austin was elected several times to the Massachusetts General Court , five times to the House of Representatives (1811, 1812, 1816, 1827, 1834) and three times to the Senate (1821, 1822, 1823).

Occasionally Austin tried his hand at writing. The best-known of his six published stories is Peter Rugg, the Missing Man , published between 1824 and 1827 in the New England Galaxy , a variation on the saga of the Flying Dutchman . Peter Rugg, a New England merchant, is punished for his irascibility, excluded from human society and condemned to drive his carriage through wind and weather on the country roads of New England forever, but never to reach his hometown of Boston .

Fonts

Speeches, essays and tracts

• Strictures on Harvard University . John W. Folsom, Boston 1798.
• An Oration, Pronounced at Charlestown, at the Request of the Artillery Company, on the Seventeenth of June; Being the Anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, and of That Company . Samuel Etheridge, Charlestown 1801.
• Letters from London: Written during the Years 1802 & 1803 . William Pelham, Boston 1804.
• An Essay on the Human Character of Jesus Christ . William Pelham, Boston 1807.

Short stories

• Peter Rugg, the Missing Man , appeared in the New England Galaxy between September 1824 and January 1827 .
  • various reprints u. a .: Peter Rugg, the Missing Man. With a notice of the author . Franklin P. Rice, Worcester, Mass. 1882.
  • German: Peter Rugg, the missing person . Translated by Albert Hess. In: Fritz Güttinger (Ed.): American storytellers . Artemis-Verlag, Zurich 1946, pp. 28–78.
• The Sufferings of a Country Schoolmaster , New England Galaxy, July 8, 1825, pp. 1-2.
• The Late Joseph Natterstrom , New England Magazine , July 1831, pp. 11-19.
• The Origin of Chemistry: A Manuscript Recently Found in an Old Trunk , in: New England Magazine , January 1834, pp. 13-18.
• The Man with the Cloaks: A Vermont Legend , in: American Monthly Magazine , January 1836, pp. 331-342.
• Martha Gardner; or Moral Reaction , in: American Monthly Magazine , December 1837.

literature

• James Walker Austin (Ed.): The Literary Papers of William Austin . Little, Brown, Boston 1890.
• Walter Austin: A Forgotten Duel: Fought in Rhode Island between William Austin, of Charlestown, and James Henderson Elliot, of Boston, March 31, 1806 . Boston 1914.
• Walter Austin: William Austin: The Creator of Peter Rugg . Marshall Jones, Boston 1925.
• Alain Geoffroy: Mais qui était donc Peter Rugg? Sources historiques cryptées d'un écrit fantastique révolutionnaire . In: Revue française d'études américaines 68, 1996, pp. 87-97.
• Bernard Terramorsi: Rêve américain: Les origines du fantastique et le fantastique des origines aux États-Unis: Rip van Winkle et La légende du val dormant de Washington Irving (1819), Peter Rugg le disparu de William Austin (1824) . L'Harmattan, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-7384-2838-X .
• Philip Young: The Story of the Missing Man . In: Stanley Weintraub and Philip Young (Eds.): Directions in Literary Criticism: Contemporary Approaches to Literature . Penn State University Press, University Park PA and London 1973, pp. 143-159.