Andrej Bernardus Smolnikar

Abstract

At the bicentenary of Andreas Bemardus Smolnikar (1795-?1869), having been active in America as utopian socialist and religious reformer in the middle of the 19th century, the study brings a survey of results of so far existing researches concerning his life and work, pointing out to those elements in his biography being from the cultural-historical point of view of special significance. In Slovenia, those elements are his close contacts with Matija Kalister, Valentin Vodnik, Matija Čop, France Prešeren, Jakob Zupan, Urban Jarnik and Anton Martin Slomšek; in America, however, mostly his contacts with the poet Heny Wadsworth Longfellow, his attempt to issue a periodical gazette (the first attempt ol this kind in the history of Slovene journalism in the USA), his utopical experiment with Peace Union Settlement in Northwest Pennsylvania in 1843 and Peace Union Center in Racoon Valley in Southeast Pennsylvania in 1859, and finally his actions in the time of American Civil War.