Letter from G. Forster to B. G. Hoffmann, bookseller, Hamburg, 9 May 1789?, with transcription, 1939?

MLMSS 7911

fonds

9 May 1789?, transcribed 1939?

872770

0.01 metres of textual material

Georg Forster, (1754-1794), German writer, traveller and revolutionary, was born on 26 November 1754 at Nassenhüben, near Danzig. In 1765 he accompanied his father, Johann Reinhold Forster, on a voyage of scientific exploration to Russia. Then the family settled in England, living in Warrington and London. At 12 Georg Forster was already translating French, Swedish and Russian books into English and German, and for a time he taught languages. In 1772-75 he was his father's assistant on Captain James Cook's second voyage. Because of J. R. Forster's quarrel with the Admiralty, A Voyage Round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution … (1777) had to be written by Georg Foster.

Reference:
Australian Dictionary of Biography Online. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/ (accessed August 31, 2009)

The holograph letter written in German, with Kurrent or Zutterlin script from Georg Forster to Hoffmann requests him to despatch 3 copies of his translation of The account of the Pelew Islands by George Keate's so he could present a first dedicated copy to the Elector of Mainz (Friedrich Karl Joseph Reichsfreiherr von Erthal)

Transferred from the Manuscripts Collection Af 34/5, September 2009

Dated from imprint of German edition of Keate's book.