Ethan A. Hitchcock (General)

Ethan Allen Hitchcock ( born May 18, 1798 in Vergennes, Vermont; † August 5, 1870 Sparta, New York) was a general of the U.S. Army. After his retirement, he devoted himself to collecting alchemical books and wrote the first psychological examination of the research area. He was in a precursor of Herbert Silberer of Carl Gustav Jung led to his works on alchemy.

Contributions to alchemy and forerunner of Jungian Psychology

The as " Pen of the Army" known Ethan Allen Hitchcock was known to his contemporaries as a scholar and avid reader of philosophical books.

Until his death, Hitchcock had an extensive private library of philosophical texts, including more than 250 books on the subject of alchemy collected. This collection was generally regarded as one of the finest private collections of rare alchemical works. It is located today in the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri- St.Louis. In his works on alchemy and the alchemists as well as in other writings Hitchcock argued that the alchemists were religious philosophers who discussed their views in symbolic form. Hitchcock was Rosicrucians and together with Lincoln member of a lodge in Washington, DC

Music collection

The Major General also played flute and put an extensive music collection with works for the flute to. Only in the 1960s, nearly a hundred years after his death, the "Collection Sparta " was discovered. The collection inventory of 73 bound volumes and about 200 loose manuscripts, is currently in the Warren D. Allen Music Library at Florida State University.

Works

• Remarks upon Alchemy and Alchemists 1857
• Christ the Spirit 1861
• The Story of the Red Book of Appin 1863
• Spenser 's Poem 1865
• Remarks on the Sonnets of Shakespeare 1867
• Fifty Years in Camp and Field posthumous, 1909
• A Traveler in Indian Territory: The Journal of Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Late Major-General in the United States Army in 1930