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FormatJournal Article
Author, AnalyticKamphoefner, Walter D.
Title, AnalyticThe Quest of the Historical Juernjakob: A Centennial Evaluation of an Immigrant Novel and the Real-Life Figure Behind It
Journal TitleYearbook of German-American Studies
Date of Publication2016
Volume ID51
Location in Work5-27
View Onlinehttps://doi.org/10.17161/ygas.v51i
ISSN0741-2827
AbstractDescribes both the author's and Eldon Knuth's search to trace the fictionalized Juernjakob Swehn to a real person. "Even with Knuth's discoveries [see: Knuth, Eldon L. "Who Wrote Those Letters?" German-American Genealogy. 2005 Spring; 11-12, ill.] and those I have built upon them, there is still much that remains ambiguous as to what parts of the book [Jürnjakob Swehn der Amerikafahrer] we can attribute to the historical Juernjakob, a real Iowa immigrant farmer [named Wiedow], and how much is attributable to his ghostwriter Gillhoff. But perhaps the strongest conclusion we can draw . . . is the evidence his example brings of the openness and assimilative pull of American society for European immigrants and their children, even in German enclaves of rural Iowa."
NotesIncludes bibliographical notes and references (pp. 22-27). --- Jürnjakob
Call NumberMKI Periodicals
MKI TermsGillhoff, Johannes/ German Americans -- Iowa/ Swehn, Juernjakob/ Immigrants in literature/ Letters/ Mecklenburg