This article re-examines the life and work of August Antoni Jakubowski, illegitimate son of
the Romantic poet Antoni Malczewski. After the November Uprising (1830–1831) Jakubowski was
deported from Austria to the Unites States, where he wrote The Remembrances of a Polish Exile,
the fi rst book on Polish history, literature and education to be published in America in English. The
article discusses ‘Melodie amerykańskie’ [American Melodies], a little known poem which has
not yet been the subject of an in-depth literary analysis, as well as a number of hitherto unknown
references to Jakubowski in the letters his student Mary Pierce Poor wrote to her parents between
1836 and 1837. The article presents the results of research into primary source material in American
collections; the project was funded by a grant from the Kościuszko Foundatio