sentences:  Birkbeck's follow-up, "Letters from Illinois" (1818), published in Boston, Philadelphia, and London, went through seven editions in English, besides being translated in 1819 into French and German.The radical nature of the anti-clerical and anti-aristocratic vision presented in Birkbeck's writings frightened Britain's conservative establishment, even as it excited thousands to dream of following him to the Illinois prairies.A pamphlet war ensued, where pundits, editors and ordinary folk debated the merits of Birkbeck and Flower's radical political statement and reform efforts, thrusting the two men before the Anglo-American reading public, while English emigrants and their investigating agents headed for "The English Prairie" to ascertain the truth of the settlement's prospects.