author
John Woods
d. 1829
An English farmer and travel writer, he left a lively firsthand account of life on the Illinois frontier in the early 1820s. His best-known book observes the land, towns, farming, and everyday habits of settlers with a practical eye.
1 Audiobook
Hulme's Journal, 1818-19; Flower's Letters from Lexington and the Illinois, 1819; Flower's Letters from the Illinois, 1820-21; and Woods's Two Years' Residence, 1820-21
by Thomas Hulme, Richard Flower, John Woods
About the author
John Woods was a British visitor to the United States whose name is closely tied to Two Years' Residence in the Settlement on the English Prairie, in the Illinois Country, United States, published in London in 1822. The book grew out of his time in the English Prairie settlement in Illinois and records his experiences from 1820 to 1821.
What makes Woods interesting today is the kind of writer he was: observant, grounded, and deeply interested in how people actually lived. He wrote about agriculture, local plants and animals, towns and villages, and the customs of backwoods settlers, creating a valuable picture of frontier life for later readers.
Reliable biographical details about his personal life are limited in the sources I could confirm during this search. He is commonly identified in library and archive records as John Woods, died 1829.