Friedrich Gerstäcker (May 10 1816, Hamburg - May 31 1872, Braunschweig) was a German traveler and novelist.

Being just under 21 years old he went to the USA to settle there. Six adventurous years later, in which he wandered North-America from Canada to Texas, from Arkansas to Louisiana, he returned to Germany.

Here he utilized his diaries, made a living from translations at first, and then began publishing his experiences: "Streif- und Jagdzüge durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika" (written on the basis of his diary), "Die Regulatoren in Arkansas" and "Die Flußpiraten des Mississippi" were the start of a successful writer's career. In the years following Gerstäcker travelled through South America, experienced the California gold rush, crossed the South Pacific on a whaler, wandered through Australia, experienced the gold rush there, went to Java, back to South America, Africa, again to North and Central America. Prepairing a journey to India, China and Japan, a brain stroke hit him on May 31, 1872.

The widely travelled adventurer consigned an oeuvre of 44 volumes, which he arranged with his own hand for his Jena publisher H. Costenoble. His stories and novels inspired numerous imitators. Karl May took profit from him and used landscape descriptions as well as sujets and characters.

The 1978 founded Friedrich-Gerstäcker-Gesellschaft e.V. in Braunschweig offers more information and runs a Museum about Gerstäcker's work.

Books

• Streif- und Jagdzüge durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika (Rambling and Hunting in the United States of North America), 1844
• Die Regulatoren in Arkansas (The Arkansas Regulators), 1845
• Die Flußpiraten des Mississippi (Mississippi River Pirates)

External Links)

• http://www.niulib.niu.edu/badndp/gerstacker_friedrich.html
• http://www.gerstaecker-museum.de/