The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Sealsfield, Charles

SEALSFIELD, sēlz'fēld, Charles, pseudonym of Karl Anton Postl, Austrian novelist: b. Poppitz, Moravia, 3 March 1793; d. Solothurn, Switzerland, 26 May 1864. He early entered a monastery and was ordained in the priesthood, but in 1822 fled to Switzerland and thence to the United States where he lived in 1822-26 and 1827-30. In 1829 he edited in New York the Courier des Etats Unis, and after 1832 made his residence chiefly in Switzerland, though he visited the United States at intervals. He subsequently engaged in novel writing, his work creating a sensation in Germany. His publications include ‘Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika’ (1828); ‘Der Legitime und die Republikaner’ (1833); ‘Lebensbilder aus beiden Hemisphären’ (1835-37); ‘Das Kajütenbuch’ (1840); ‘Süden und Norden’ (1842-43), etc.