Famous Foreigners who took extended tours of the U.S.A.

[Sampiro]

I won't be surprised if this one sinks under the horizon without a response since it's somewhat obscure, but to quote Fats Waller, "one never knows, do one?"

I have an odd research interest in history, that being "snapshots" of America at particular times and places as seen through the eyes of foreign celebrities, particularly those who took extended tours of the nation. I'm not referring as much to people like Alexis de Toqueville or Citizen Genet whose reasons for coming here and observing were explicitly political or the European officers who rode with the Confederacy and Union for explicit purposes of military observation but those who were more... leisurely, perhaps, or at least less political.

My two favorite tours to research- currently I'm on a kick of the latter- are Lafayette's tour (1824-1825) and Oscar Wilde's (1882).

Lafayette (or more properly Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, better known to his friends as Gil) was of course the Revolutionary War hero who snuck over here as a teenager (seriously pissing off Louis XVI and his advisors when he did so) to serve George Washington with whom he developed a sort of father/son relationship (though I think he saw Washington more as a surrogate father than Washington saw him as a surrogate son). He was perhaps most important for his work in assisting with the French alliance and securing French loans that won the Revolution.
Lafayette was a fascinating person on many levels: orphaned young, heir to several great fortunes that would make him probably a moderate billionaire in today's currency, raised by old aunts and a great-grandfather on (exaggerated) tales of the military brilliance of the father he never knew, simultaneously a super-rich aristocrat (his allowance as a teenager would be over $1 million in today's currency) and a radical anti-classist. There's some bizarre little aristocratic customs and anecdotes thrown in, such as his wedding night: he was 16, his wife (Adrienne de Noailles, heiress to several fortunes as well, arranged of course) was 14, and their grandmothers sat outside the curtains of their bed to make sure the marriage was consummated. (It apparently was, though he never saw their first child; Adrienne was pregnant when he came to America and the baby died before he returned to France.)
After the Revolution he became a superstar in France and also hated by many on both sides. During the Revolution he was arrested and imprisoned by the Holy Roman Emperor while back in France his wife and children were house-arrested by the Robespierre government as aristocrats; they managed to smuggle their son, George Washington du Motier, to America- where his namesake would not take him in until he was sure it was politically wise to do so (must have stung), though he then became a resident of Mt. Vernon for a while. Adrienne saw- literally saw- her mother, aunt, grandmother, sister and some other relatives guillotined and would have been herself had it not been for some diplomacy by American ambassador (and all around weird libertine*) Gouverneur Morris who got her and her daughters released. They made their way to Austria where they tried to get LaFayette freed and when that failed they bribed and pleaded their way into staying with him in his tiny dungeon cell, where they sent messages to their friends and family and received food and medical supplies in their cell from LaFayette's former mistresses (at least one of whom Adrienne had chosen for him). He was released, but his wife's health was ruined by the dungeon and his estates were destroyed by the Revolution.
Anyway, didn't mean to go this long, but- by 1824 he was a widower and he was also cash poor due to the damage to his properties done by the Revolution and the fact that he had become a rabid abolitionist due to his time in captivity who had not only freed the slaves he owned in his Caribbean holdings (he also lost estates in Haiti incidentally) but had purchased many more so that he could manumit them. He embarked upon a tour of the U.S.A., just a tad before the 50th anniversary of his arrival, and it was an enormous affair.
Everywhere he went he was the talk of the town and there were balls thrown and huge dinners hosted in his honor and the richest and most famous of people vied for the right to be his hosts. He met with some of his surviving Revolutionary cronies- an ancient John Adams, the broke and on verge of total ruin but not quite so ancient as his frienemy Adams Thomas Jefferson, and others you've heard of and some you haven't, met a lot of people who had become famous in the meantime (Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, the American Bonapartes etc.) and some who would be famous (including a little boy who he kissed named Walt Whitman). His carriage was carried over a river by Indians (who thought he was long-dead George Washington) and wherever he went streets and towns and cities were named after him and places associated with him (several states have a LaGrange named for his primary residence in France) and he was given gifts: sometimes a watch, sometimes the deed to a city block or thousands of acres of land. He sold the real estate and put the money into his pillaged estates and coffers.
An interesting aspect of his visit is how much America had grown, changed, and grown nostalgic in the 50 years since the Revolution. It's also interesting how quickly he wore out his welcome with some of his slaveowning hosts when he began speaking against the evils of slavery; at some affairs when he spoke in French he was mistranslated, which made him- politely- begin speaking in English (in which he was more than conversant but rusty) with a sort of "I must beg your pardon, my French accent is so severe that you cannot understand my words" type comment.
Anyway, sorry for TMI, but I think this visit is way more interesting than Toqueville's.
====================================

I won't go into as much detail on Wilde- I'll just say that in 1882 he spent most of a year touring the U.S. several times giving lectures on of all things interior design/decoration/English art as the key spokesman of the Aesthetics movement and as the inspiration for the character of Bunthorne a super popular Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, Patience. (G&S's agent actually sponsored his tour which was to cross pollenate that operetta in America; the operetta produced publicity for Wilde and he returned the compliment.) Wilde was famous for being famous back in England (he'd written some essays and a self published volume of mostly mediocre poems- but he was not a successful writer yet (his one play, VERA, had flopped big-time and is now forgotten, while DORIAN GRAY/LADY W.'s FAN/IMP. OF B.E., etc., were years in the future) but virtually unknown in America, so it's amazing that though not without his share of savage critics he was a huge hit in America. He made a small fortune (his personal share was around $30,000, about $500,000 in today's money) which set him up nicely, especially coupled with his shadow tour of England and Europe giving his [often bitchy] impressions of America.
During the tour he met many of the greats and luminaries of the time: Mrs. Custer, Barnum, various politicians of note, John Taylor (president of the Mormon church)- as well as lots of gold and silver miners, Chinese immigrants (who impressed the hell out of him for the way they worked art and beauty into impoverished homes and businesses), Jefferson Davis (the man who he most wanted to meet), several Irish people in America (some in exile), and even Charles Guiteau (not so much a meeting as he attended a day of the trial). He corresponded with his pal Lily Langtry throughout as well, and most interestingly is that like LaFayette he kissed Walt Whitman (though on the lips) during the tour.
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There are others as well: Sarah Bernhardt's tours- most of them 'farewell' tours would be interesting. Chang & Eng's first tour (before they settled) or Jenny Lind's are also interesting, but I'd like to find a later one to tour. Or perhaps much earlier- as in Colonial America if there was one.

Magda Goebbels and her first husband took a long extended driving tour of the U.S. in the 1920s, but they weren't famous. Any suggestions for famous foreigners who took long tours of the U.S. who would be interesting to research next? (I'm not as interested in those who paid visits, like Freud, but prefer those who spent at least a few weeks.)

[jjimm]

Charles Dickens did two extended tours of the US.

[Captain Amazing]

Charles Dickens visited America twice, the first time in 1842, to Boston, Richmond (he had originally planned to go to Charleston, but it was just Too Damned Hot), Washington, and St. Louis, and the second time in 1867-8, where he gave lectures up and down the Eastern Seaboard (He had planned to go to Chicago and St. Louis, but he was old and ill).

There was also Frances Trollope, whose son was more famous than she was, but who moved to the United States to join a commune, and then after it failed, moved to Cincinnati and failed utterly, then went back to England and wrote a really nasty book about America, saying Americans were just a bunch of pretentious hicks.

[Švejk]

Antonín Dvořák, the famous Czech composer, spent three years as the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City (between 1892 and 1895). Wikipedia tells us that he also spent time in Iowa with relatives of his. I'm sure he wrote down some of his impressions, but much more importantly, it resulted in one of the most beautiful (in my humble opinion, true, but an opinion that many share) pieces of classical music ever written: Symphony #9, From the New World (Youtube).

ETA: Vladimir Mayakovsky, early 20th century Soviet poet, also traveled to the US during the 1920s and wrote 'My Discovery of America' (Мое открытие Америки, 1925) on the basis of his travels.

[Gala Matrix Fire]

Sayyid Qutb spent a couple years in Greeley, Colorado, plus some time at Stanford and in DC, and was not impressed. His writings later influenced all of today's Islamic extremists. You might find him amusing.

[blondebear]

Alexis de Tocqueville spent 9 months traveling America in 1831 and published his observations in the classic Democracy in America.

[R. P. McMurphy]

Winston Churchill spent a lot of time at the White House according to Doris Keans Goodman in her book on FDR "No Ordinary Time".

[madmonk28]

Richard Burton, the explorer, toured the US.

[MPB in Salt Lake]

Originally Posted by madmonk28

Richard Burton, the explorer, toured the US.

And he also hung out with Brigham Young right here in Salt Lake City, and told Young that he wanted to join the Mormon Church.

Brother Brigham probably didnt want any additional competition for the adolescent girls he fancied, and told Burton to keep moving..............

[Little Nemo]

Louis-Philippe d'Orleans, the future King of France, went into exile during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. Among his travels was a four year stay in the United States. One anecdote I heard was that he became involved with a young American woman and marriage was discussed. However her father ended the relationship, saying that if Louis-Philippe remained an exile, he was beneath his daughter's station and that if he were ever restored to power, she'd be beneath his station.

[Little Nemo]

Leon Trotsky lived several periods of his life in exile and often ended up getting kicked out of the country he was living in. He was living in the United States when Nicholas II abdicated in 1917 and he decided it was time to head back to Russia.

[Sampiro]

Several great suggestions- thanks all around. I think I'm going to do Trotsky and Louis Philippe.

[Tengu]

Rudyard Kipling and his family spent several years in Vermont during the early 1890s - in fact, their eldest children were born there.

[dropzone]

Time-Life, in its series about the West, described a stop of Wilde's tour of the west. The guys who made up the town were badassed miners, and Wilde's fey reputation proceeded him, so the locals lowered him with a group of championship drinkers and a lot of booze into a mine so as to show what a delicate flower he was. The next morning Wilde was the only one left conscious.

The lesson: Gay or straight, never challenge a large Irishman to a drinking contest.

[Northern Piper]

Tallyrand spent about 18 months in the U.S. at one stage during the French revolutionary period:

His stay in England was not uneventful either; in March 1794, he was forced to leave the country by Pitt's expulsion order. He then arrived in the United States where he stayed until his return to France in 1796. During his stay, he supported himself by working as a bank agent, involved in commodity trading and real-estate speculation. He was the house guest of Senator Aaron Burr of New York. Talleyrand years later refused the same generosity to Burr because Talleyrand had been friends with Alexander Hamilton, whom Burr had killed in a duel.

[Jim's Son]

Originally Posted by Spartydog

Winston Churchill spent a lot of time at the White House according to Doris Keans Goodman in her book on FDR "No Ordinary Time".

Kearns doesn't know what she is talking about (or is plagiarizing from bad sources). Churchill was Prime Minister of an empire at war for its life. He did not spend weeks and months at the FDR White House, as Kearns has implied on Letterman and other places. He was there but not for extended visits.

[Jim's Son]

Georges Clemenceau spent time in America in exile and married one in the 1860s. Not sure if he wrote about it.

[mhendo]

Many excellent suggestions already.

I'd add Harriet Martineau, an English writer who toured the US in the 1830s and produced Society in America. Not as scathing or entertaining as Frances Trollope's Domestic Manners of the Americans, but still an interesting read.

[Krokodil]

The Sex Pistols toured redneck bars in the deep south for a few weeks in January 1978 and never completely recovered from the experience.

[Rayne Man]

George Simenon spent ten years in the USA after WW2. He wrote several books (including some of his Maigret novels) while resident in Lakeville, Connecticut.

[pseudotriton ruber ruber]

Matthew Arnold made a coast-to-coast speaking tour, much like Wilde's. I actually wrote an article on this topic--I'll see if I can turn it up. Now, I can just barely remember Arnold and Clemenceau.

[Elendil's Heir]

Churchill did tour the U.S. in the 1920s, and was injured when he was hit by a cab in NYC. He also visited some Civil War battlefields, at one of which his guide was an old Confederate veteran.

Not what you're looking for, but Golda Meir grew up in Milwaukee, IIRC, and Benazir Bhutto went to college here.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Kruschev (sp?) in the 50s.

[Meurglys]

Robert Louis Stevenson took the train across America in 1879, falling ill on the way and eventually staying in California for about a decade.
He also returned a few years later for another couple of years before sailing for the South Pacific and his eventual death in Samoa.
He wrote The Amateur Emigrant and The Silverado Squatters about some of his experiences in the USA.

[R. P. McMurphy]

Ho Chi Minh.

From Wiki:

In 1912, again working as the cook's helper on a ship, Cung traveled to the United States. From 1912 to 1913, he lived in New York (Harlem) and Boston, where he worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel. He worked in menial jobs and later claimed to have worked for a wealthy family in Brooklyn between 1917 and 1918, and during this time he may have heard Marcus Garvey speak in Harlem. It is believed that while in the United States he made contact with Korean nationalists, an experience that developed his political outlook.

[What Exit?]

Originally Posted by Tengu

Rudyard Kipling and his family spent several years in Vermont during the early 1890s - in fact, their eldest children were born there.

Apparently spent a summer or part of a summer in DC too as he joined Theodore Roosevelt's circle for a while.

[Thudlow Boink]

Originally Posted by Sampiro

I have an odd research interest in history, that being "snapshots" of America at particular times and places as seen through the eyes of foreign celebrities, particularly those who took extended tours of the nation.

That's kind of the point of this book (have you read it?):
Star-Spangled Eden: 19th Century America Through the Eyes of Dickens, Wilde, Frances Trollope, Frank Harris and Other British Travelers

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by What Exit?

Apparently spent a summer or part of a summer in DC too as he joined Theodore Roosevelt's circle for a while.

Kipling's house in Dummerston, Vt. still stands. I've visited it but didn't spend the night, as you can: http://www.landmarktrustusa.org/naulakha/index.html

[Tom Tildrum]

Humbert Humbert, fictionally.

[Sampiro]

Originally Posted by Thudlow Boink

That's kind of the point of this book (have you read it?):
Star-Spangled Eden: 19th Century America Through the Eyes of Dickens, Wilde, Frances Trollope, Frank Harris and Other British Travelers

No, but just wishlisted it. Thanks.

Richard Burton's another great one (mentioned above). I've read the transcripts of his meeting with Brigham Young (who actually was very interested in the man) and Burton's later depictions of polygamy in Arabia v. Salt Lake City. (Generally he thought the Mormons had taken the most sordid custom in the [then] modern world and made it dull, though it's worth remembering that the fact Smith and Young and many of the other early Mormons were from working class hand-to-mouth northeastern farm families and that the early years of Deseret were marked by drought and poverty played a big part in the personality of the church; there wasn't a lot of marble and silk and jeweled anklets to go around so the women were more likely to be found behind a plow than eating bon-bons and hummingbird tongue.)

[yanceylebeef]

Does Stephen Fry count? His In America special on the Beeb was pretty good.

[Sampiro]

Originally Posted by yanceylebeef

Does Stephen Fry count? His In America special on the Beeb was pretty good.

A bit recent, but I love Fry. (AND he made a great Wilde.) I also like Louis Theoroux's shows set in America; anybody who can maintain relative objectivity while living with the Phelps family for a few days is worthy of admiration.

[Kizarvexius]

Originally Posted by Sampiro

I won't go into as much detail on Wilde- I'll just say that in 1882 he spent most of a year touring the U.S. several times giving lectures on of all things interior design/decoration/English art as the key spokesman of the Aesthetics movement and as the inspiration for the character of Bunthorne a super popular Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, Patience. (G&S's agent actually sponsored his tour which was to cross pollenate that operetta in America; the operetta produced publicity for Wilde and he returned the compliment.)

I wouldn't characterize the partnership between Wilde and Richard D'Oyly Carte quite in those terms. Carte, the hardworking impresario who managed to keep W. S. Gilbert & A. S. Sullivan on fairly cooperative terms for an astonishing number of years, feared that American audiences would not be sufficiently familiar with the Aesthetic Movement, and that the skewering satire of the movement, central to the plot of Patience, would be lost on them. Carte therefore subsidized Wilde's Grand Tour of America so that the theater-going audience, once exposed to the enfant terrible's highflown eccentricities, would be better able to get the jokes.

Wilde was no fool, and knew quite well that he'd been set up to be the object of future ridicule. It was, however, an opportunity for self-promotion that he simply couldn't resist. And he may be thought of as revenged, as Patience is largely forgotten (outside of G&S circles, of course) and Wilde's tour remains a touchstone of popular culture from the era.

[Petek]

The complete text of Richard F. Burton's book about his travel in the U.S., The City of the Saints, is available online here.

[ErinPuff]

Darius Milhaud (French composer, 1892-1974) moved to California in 1940 because of the Nazis, but before that, he came to the US at least twice for concert tours. I'm currently desperately trying to finish a paper on his engagement with black music and cultures (it was due last week, it's twice as long as it needs to be but still somehow not done, I'm going to lose my mind entirely in about thirty seconds), so all I can remember is that on the first trip (1922) he became obsessed with jazz in Harlem and had an awkward experience with segregation when he tried to take a black fan out to lunch, and on the second (1926) he went to a service at a black church in Birmingham, Alabama and was almost refused entry to a theatre in New Orleans because he was white (once he and his wife explained to the manager that they were French, he let them watch the show from his office). As far as I know, both tours were at least a few months long.

[Martini Enfield]

Originally Posted by yanceylebeef

Does Stephen Fry count? His In America special on the Beeb was pretty good.

I got the very distinct impression from the show that he wasn't enjoying himself all that much, actually- which is a shame because I'm a big fan of Mr. Fry's work and generally found the show to be very entertaining otherwise.

I'll second Louis Theroux' work (I particularly enjoyed "Killadelphia"), although sometimes I think he does perhaps force his points a bit too bluntly.

[Sigmagirl]

In 1832, Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuweid, traveled the Great Plains region, including a trip up the Missouri River; two years later, he traveled the entire length of the Ohio and Erie Canal, recording his experiences in a journal. In 1840 he published a book about his travels. He is not as famous as the OP may wish but, because he was so well educated, and a prominent naturalist, his work is very valuable today, especially to those of us who live near the canal and are interested in its preservation.

[Elendil's Heir]

I haven't seen the Stephen Fry series. What, in a nutshell, was his take on the USA?

Wilde's visit to America gave us one of his most famous bon mots. When asked by a U.S. Customs official if he had anything to declare, Wilde allegedly replied, "Only my genius!"

[Paul in Qatar]

Sigmund Freud come to mind at once. (I have oft wondered about his thoughts on American culture.)

[Miss Mapp]

The future Edward VII, as a boy of 18 or thereabouts in 1860, toured the U.S. and Canada.

There's a poem about it, published in 1861: The Prince's visit: a humorous description of the tour of His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, through the United States of America.

[MikeS]

Originally Posted by ErinPuff

Darius Milhaud (French composer, 1892-1974) moved to California in 1940 because of the Nazis, but before that, he came to the US at least twice for concert tours.

Along the same lines, Maurice Ravel did a fifteen-week concert tour of the U.S. in 1928. Notably, he met George Gershwin and was wowed by him; you can hear more than a few echoes of "Rhapsody in Blue" in Ravel's Piano Concerto (I, II, III), written shortly after his return to Europe.

[Elendil's Heir]

Originally Posted by Miss Mapp

The future Edward VII, as a boy of 18 or thereabouts in 1860, toured the U.S. and Canada....

As did his grandson, the future Edward VIII, in 1919.