John Richardson (Canada)

This article is about the 19th-century Canadian poet and novelist. For the 18th-century Yorkshire poet and schoolmaster, see John Richardson (UK).

John Richardson (1796-1852). Portrait by Frederick William Lock (1841-1863), from Richardson's War of 1812. Courtesy Tecumseh Lies Here.

John Frederick Richardson (October 4, 1796 - May 12, 1852) was a colonial Canadian poet and novelist, and a British Army officer. He was the earliest Canadian novelist to achieve international recognition.

Life

Richardson was born at Fort George, Ontario (then Upper Canada), on the Niagara River in 1796. His mother Madelaine (Askin) was the daughter of fur trader John Askin and an Ottawa First Nations woman. His father, Dr. Robert Richardson, was a surgeon with the Queen's Rangers. As a young boy he lived for a time with his grandparents in Detroit and later with his parents at Fort Malden, Amherstburg, Ontario.

At the age of 16 Richardson enlisted as a gentleman volunteer with the British 41st Foot. This is when he met Tecumseh and General Isaac Brock, whose personalities marked his imagination and whom he would later immortalize in his novel The Canadian Brothers and in other writings. During the War of 1812, he was imprisoned for a year in the United States after his capture during the battle of Moraviantown.

He was commissioned into the 8th Foot in 1813 and exchanged into the 2nd Foot in 1816 and the 92nd Foot in 1818. His later military service took him to England and, for 2 years, to the West Indies. During his stay in the West Indies, he was appalled by the inhuman treatment to which slaves were subjected.

He married twice: to Jane Marsh in August 1825; and on April 2, 1832, to Maria Caroline Drayson, who died August 16, 1845. He had no children.

In 1835 he served with the British Legion fighting in the First Carlist War in Spain. After the 1836 publication of his Journal of the Movements of the British Legion, he was brought before a court of inquiry for casting "discredit on the conduct of the Legion," a charge changed to "cowardice in battle" – he was exonerated, and promoted to major in 1836.

In 1838, Richardson returned home from England to Canada. He tried to earn his livelihood by writing fiction and by setting up a series of weekly newspapers. He was appointed superintendent of the police on the Welland Canal in 1845, but was relieved of these duties the following year.

In 1849 he moved to the United States and settled in New York City, where he continued to write fiction. His attempts to build a literary career in the United States failed. His new novels sold well, both in serialization and book form, and his earlier Canadian novels were reprinted, also to commercial success. However, he made little money from them because he was forced by his straitened circumstances to sell them to the publishers for reduced lump sums.

Richardson died (supposedly of starvation) in New York City in 1852. He was buried in the paupers' cemetery in New York, and his grave is still unknown.

Writing

Richardson began his fiction-writing career with novels about the British and French societies of his time. In his 3rd and most successful novel, Wacousta, he turned to the North American frontier for his setting and to its recent history for its historical framework. He followed the same practice in the sequel, The Canadian Brothers.

His biographers have argued that his own racial background both made him uneasy in his relations with his fellow officers, and also may have contributed to the compassionate treatment of the Native Others in his novels. Unlike the stereotypical Indians of James Fenimore Cooper's frontier tales, Richardson's Indians are portrayed in a more complex manner. His most savage characters, Wacousta, in the novel Wacousta (1832) and Desborough, in The Canadian Brothers (1840), are in fact whites turned savage.

Criticism

William Riddell: "[In Tecumseh,] while the verse runs smoothly, the rhythm and rhyme are both unexceptionable, the terminology is well chosen and little, if any, fault can be found with the imagery. There is a total absence of anything like poetic fire; nothing is said which could not be equally well said in prose form; the verse reads like so much prose cut into lengths; the whole work is a typical example of "machine made poetry."

Recognition

Richardson was made a knight of the Spanish Order of Saint Ferdinand for bravery during the Spanish campaign.

His novel Wacousta is still in print today. It was adapted for the stage in the 19th century, and again in the 20th (by Canadian poet James Reaney).

Publications

Poetry

• Tecumseh; or, The warrior of the west: A poem, in four cantos. London: R. Glynn, 1828; Ottawa: Golden Dog Press, 1978
  • (edited by Douglas Daymond & Leslie Monkman). Canadian Poetry Press, 1992.
• Kensington Gardens in 1830. London: Marsh & Miller, 1830;
  • Major Richardson's 'Kensington Gardens in 1830' (edited by Carl Frederick Klinck). Toronto: Bibliographical Society of Canada, 1957.

Play

• James Reaney, Wacousta!. Toronto: Press Porcépic, 1979.

Novels

• Ecarté; or, The salons of Paris. London: Henry Colburn, 1829.
• Frascati's; or, Scenes in Paris (with Jutin Brenan). 1830; Philadelphia: E.L. Carey & A. Hart, 1836; Simcoe, ON: Davus, 2004.
• Wacousta; or, The prophecies: A tale of the Canadas. (3 volumes), London: T. Cadell / Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1832; (1 volume), Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart (New Canadian Library), 1991. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III
  • also published as Wacousta: A tale of the Pontiac conspiracy. Toronto: Historical Publishing, 1906.
  • (edited by Douglas Richard Cronk). Ottawa, ON: Carleton University Press, 1987.
  • abridged edition (edited by Carl Frederick Klinck). Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart (New Canadian Library), 1988.
  • published in U.S. as Wacousta; or, The prophecy: A tale of Detroit and Michillimackinac. Philadelphia: A. Waldie, 1833
  • also published as Wacousta; or, The prophecy: An Indian tale. New York: Pollard & Moss, 1888
• The Canadian Brothers; or, The Prophecy fulfilled: A tale of the late American War. Montreal: A.H. Armour & H. Ramsay, 1840
  • (edited by Carl Frederick Klinck). Toronto & Buffalo, NY: University of Toronto Press, 1976
  • (edited by Donald G. Stephens). Ottawa, ON: Carleton University Press, 1992; Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014.
  • published in U.S. as Matilda Montgomerie; or, The prophecy fulfilled: A tale of the late American war. New York: De Witt & Davenport, 1851.
• The Monk Knight of St. John: A tale of the Crusades. New York: Dewitt and Davenport, 1850; Simcoe, ON: Davus, 2001.
• Hardscrabble: A tale of Chicago. Philadelphia: Sartain’s Union Magazine of Literature and Art, February-June, 1850; Philadelphia: John Sertain, 1850
  • also published as Hardscrabble; or, The fall of Chicago: A tale of Indian warfare. New York: R.M. de Witt, 1856.
• Westbrook, the Outlaw; or, The avenging wolf: An American border tale. New York: Sunday Mercury, Sep. 4 - Oct. 26, 1851; Montreal: G. Woolmer, 1973; Simcoe, ON: Davus, 2004.
• Wau-nan-gee; or, The massacre at Chicago: A romance of the American Revolution. New York: Sunday Mercury, 1851; New York: H. Long & Bro., 1852

Non-fiction

• Journal of the Movements of the British Legion. London: E. Wilson, 1836.
• Personal Memoirs. . Montreal: A.H. Armour & H. Ramsay, 1838.
• War of 1812: First series. Brockville, ON: 1842
  • Richardson's War of 1812 (edited by Alexander Clark Casselman). Toronto: Historical Publishing, 1902.
• Eight Years in Canada. Montreal: H.H. Cunningham, 1847.
• The Guards in Canada; or, The point of honor: Geing a sequel to Major Richardson's "Eight Years in Canada.". Montreal: H.H. Cunningham, 1848.
• Tecumseh and Richardson: The story of a trip to Walpole Island and Port Sarnia. Toronto: Ontario Book, 1924.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• Colonial Canadian poets
• List of Canadian poets
• Timeline of Canadian poetry

External links

Books

• Works by John Richardson at Project Gutenberg
• Wacousta at Amazon.ca

About

• John Richardson in The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• "A Na(t)ive Paradise: John Richardson's Tecumseh" by Wanda Campbell