Edited by his grandson, James Fenimore Cooper.
This unique and fascinating collection of letters, written 1800-1851 by and to the first great American novelist and now authoritatively edited by the novelist’s grandson, is printed from originals in the possession of the Cooper family. As is well known, Cooper, during his last illness, forbade the publication of any biographical material about himself by his then living descendants; and the biographical treatments, including even the late Professor Lounsbury’s valuable work in the American Men of Letters series, have necessarily been written without access to any considerable body of first-hand evidence.
The publication of his intimate correspondence in the present collection reveals an altogether more remarkable character than has generally been conceived by even the most ardent twentieth-century admirer of Cooper.
The letters tell of his life at Cooperstown, in Westchester County, in New York City, and in various countries abroad. The leading men of the time were among his correspondents—Washington Irving, S. F. B. Morse, General Lafayette, Longfellow, Bryant—and oftentimes their letters to Cooper are included to make the story complete.
The two volumes constitute, not only an unique addition to American biography, but also a profound and diverting commentary on the social and family life of the novelist’s generation; on the status of art, letters, and the always fascinating business of writing, publishing, and selling books; on travel and international relations; and on domestic politics through the momentous decades when abolitionism was brewing in the North and secessionism in the South. In fine, there is an overflowing measure of all that one could look for, from the faint breath of old church and family scandals up to the rousing melodrama of Cooper’s long and triumphant legal campaign against newspapers. And there is a great deal more for which one would never think to look, grateful as one is to find it.
Regular Edition. Two volumes. Large 8vo. Over 700 pages. With Frontispiece. $7.50 the set.
Limited Edition. 250 numbered sets on rag paper, with extra illustrations from the collections of the Cooper family. In a suitable binding. $30.00 the set.
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS