James Fenimore Cooper (Over 25,000 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition, First Printing with ALL the First issue points including BAL's state A of the copyright page in vol 2, and all blanks, including the conjugate to the title page in vol 2. A beautiful copy of both books in this (2) Volume set is bound in the publisher's ORIGINAL paper boards and printed spine labels. The books are in great shape with minor repair. The bindings are tight with NO cocking or leaning and the boards are crisp. The pages are clean with NO marks or bookplates in the book. The books have the name H.C. Thompson written neatly on top of the title pages for provenance. A wonderful complete set housed in a custom clamshell slipcase for preservation.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First Editions, First Printings SIGNED by James Fenimore Cooper on laid in signature in volume 1. Both books are the TRUE FIRST EDITIONS published in Philadelphia. Both books are in excellent condition. The bindings are tight with NO cocking or leaning with minor wear to the boards. The pages are clean with minor discoloration and previous owner's name. A wonderful (2) Volume set SIGNED by the author housed in a custom clamshell slipcase for preservation. We buy James Fenimore Cooper First Editions. Signed by Author(s).

First edition, first impression of the author's first novel, written in the style of Jane Austen and her contemporaries. The setting is 19th-century Northamptonshire and, therefore, atypical of the author's subsequent works. Copies in the original boards are rare: we can trace only four copies in original boards sold at auction in the last 45 years (including this present copy). These copies include the half-titles and also the errata slip. Spiller & Blackburn note that "the errata slip may be found at the end of either the first or the second volume; there was no uniformity of practice". In this copy the slip appears after the title page in vol. 1. Spiller & Blackburn 1; BAL 3825. 2 volumes, octavo. Original bluish green boards, lettering to spines by hand. Housed in a custom black cloth box. Contemporary and later ownership signatures, including one dated 1827. Both volumes rebacked preserving original spine, extremities somewhat worn, occasional heavy foxing, small repairs to fore-edge and corner of title page in vol. 2, occasional light dampstaining; a very good copy and extremely rare.

Condition: Very good plus. First printing, first issue of this classic of US literature, a major influence on the development of the Western, American Romanticism, and North American-set historical fiction. One of the earliest writers born in the United States to achieve success on an international scale, Cooper has had a formative influence on the path of American literature that is difficult to overstate. Cooper was perhaps the most significant popularizer of "key forms of American fiction - the Western, the sea tale, the Revolutionary romance" (Franklin, xi). His works sought to build a uniquely American tradition, and his books' sales went a long way towards doing so. In defining the path for future writers, Cooper laid the groundwork for American masterpieces like Hawthorne's SCARLET LETTER and Melville's MOBY-DICK. Even those who disliked his work, like Mark Twain, owe him a debt (which Twain well knew): as Wayne Franklin puts it, "without Cooper, there could have been no Mark Twain" (xxii). LAST OF THE MOHICANS is a historical novel set during the French and Indian War in 1757, and based in part on Cooper's understanding of the Mohican tribe, part of the Eastern Algonquian family that were forcibly relocated west in the decade after this book's publication. It was Cooper's most successful book to date, and carried his reputation abroad: "In Europe the book produced quite a startling effect," recalled his daughter, the author Susan Fenimore Cooper. In mythologizing the beginning of the United States, LAST OF THE MOHICANS set the terms for how US citizens would tell stories about themselves. (The title itself refers to a myth still incorrectly believed by many descendants of European colonists today, that all the Indigenous nations were disappearing.) The book vividly describes the American wilderness, tying its story to geographic grandeur in an approach (shared by Washington Irving) that applied principles of romanticism to the novel. This focus on nature and narrative was also a critical forerunner to transcendentalist writers like Thoreau. It must also be said that when MOHICANS was translated into the 1992 film it led to, as one of our cataloguers insists, "the greatest film score ever composed" (by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman). Two 12mo volumes, 7'' x 4'' each. Contemporary full brown sheep, sympathetically rebacked with original gilt-stamped spines and black morocco spine labels laid down. Speckled edges. xii, 282; [4], 289, [1] pages. Minor wear to boards. Light scattered foxing to text, with moderate edgewear to preliminary leaves, small expert paper repairs to margins of a few leaves, including title of vol II. Evidence of dampstain to gutters at front and rear. Offsetting from (no longer present) bookplates to title pages. Hinges cracked, but cords holding firm. Binding sturdy, text cleaner than typical.

Condition: New. Libro nuevo, sellado, fisico, original. Enviamos a todos el mundo por USPS, Fedex y DHL. 100% garantia en su compra. Sealed, new. Unopened. 100%guarentee. We ship worldwide.

2 volumes. First Edition, First Issue with BAL's state A of the Copyright page in Vol. II and with other points called for. A COPY WITH FINE PROVENANCE AND PRESENTATION INSCRIPTIONS DATED JUNE 1826. With all the blanks called for including the conjugate for the title-page in Vol. II, the first issue points called for are present, Vol. I has the final "I" at "viii" and page 89 is incorrectly numbered 8vo, bound in the printer's original bindings of calf over blue paper covered boards. xi, [1], 282; [iv], 289 pp. A truly honest copy bound in calf and boards at the time of publication, with wear to the boards and calf backs, boards to Vol.II detached, the usual mellowing to the text-blocks, title-page to Vol.II with a closed tear, a pleasing copy of this monumental American novel, unsophisticated and very rare thus. A RARE TRUE FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF THIS GREAT CLASSIC, A TRUE CORNERSTONE OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, AND ONE OF THE MOST ELUSIVE OF THE IMPORTANT EARLY AMERICAN LITERARY CREATIONS. James Fenimore Cooper was an avid reader in an age when most literature in America was imported from England. But as an author, he decided early on that he could well do a better job of writing for a growing and distinctly American readership than could his European counterparts. And so, he began the writing of his "Leather Stocking" series of which LAST OF THE MOHICANS is the second book after the introduction of Natty Bumppo in THE DEERSLAYER but the most famous of all the titles in the group and the "first in which the scout.was made the symbol of all that was wise, heroic and romantic in the lives and characters of the white men who made the American wilderness their home.This novel glorified for the many generations of readers, in England, France, Russia and at home, some aspects of American life that were unique to our cultural history." Cooper did far more than to imitate the European authors he had read, instead developing a great new American style by which quite quickly he became one of the first and greatest literary giants of the New World. His works reflect themes and emotions unique to a people living on the edge of the great American wilderness and Cooper would prove to be widely read, not only in America, but throughout all of Europe as well. His achievement.the result of brilliant improvisation.was sustained.to the close of a hectic, crowded career. His.fame attests his power of invention.the creation of tension between different kinds of society, between society and the individual, between the settlement and the wilderness, and between civil law and natural rights as these suggest issues of moral and mythic import. Cooper's works remain to this day classics in American literature. "This is the. most famous of the Leatherstocking Tales". (Grolier 100 Influential American Books, 34). Concerning the provenance, this copy has a gift presentation dated June, 1826 and is the copy of George C. Shattuck. George Cheyne Shattuck (1783 1854) graduated from Dartmouth College in 1806 and studied medicine at Harvard Medical School and the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a degree from the latter in 1807. He practiced medicine in Boston, where in 1808 he published Three Dissertations on Boylston Prize Questions for the Years 1806 and 1807 (Sowerby, no. 986), a copy of which he sent to Thomas Jefferson in October 1808. Shattuck established an endowed professorship at the Harvard Medical School and was president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, 1836 40. DAB; Martin Kaufman and others, Dictionary of Medical Biography [1984], 2:675 6; Edward Jarvis, Memoir of the Life and Character of George Cheyne Shattuck, M.D. [1854]). Dr. Shattuck was known to Thomas Jefferson who wrote to him in 1809: "Washington Mar. 11 09. Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to mr Shattuck and his thanks for the copy of the Boylston prize dissertation which he was so kind as to send him. he shall read it with pleasure in the leisure of Monticello, to which place he [is] now in the moment of departure. he prays mr Shattuck to accept the assurances of his respect.

Paper-covered boards. Condition: Very Good. FIRST EDITION. Publisher's original tan paper boards, rebacked to style, preserving the original endpapers, all blanks and flyleaves, and the original printed paper spine label for Volume Two. Volume One label in expert facsimile. Volume One with page 89 misnumbered 93, and with the misprint XIV for XVI on page 243 (these are often cited as issue points but all known copies have both errors). The page number is present on page 71 (priority undetermined), and the last "i" is present in the pagination on page vii (sequence not determined, though BAL conjectures that the letter dropped out at some point during the printing). Volume Two with the blank conjugate leaf of the title-page present (in some copies it has been excised), and with State A of the copyright page, reading "a Book" (no known priority). Front pastedowns with "Flemington Library" written in black ink and with the bookplate of the Hunterdon County Historical Society. With the latter's blue ink stamp on the copyright pages and an early owner ink signature on the title-page of Volume One but no other markings either inside or out. Scattered foxing, mostly light. A touch of stiffness or wrinkling to the text block but this is a very good set of a high spot of American literature, not commonly surviving in the original boards. BAL 3833.

Condition: New. Libro nuevo, sellado, fisico, original. Enviamos a todos el mundo por USPS, Fedex y DHL. 100% garantia en su compra. Sealed, new. Unopened. 100%guarentee. We ship worldwide.

Full Description: [COOPER, James Fenimore]. The Last of the Mohicans. A Narrative of 1757. By the Author of "The Pioneers." Philadelphia: H.C. Carey & I. Lea, 1826. First edition, first issue with the following issue points: Vol. I: pagination present on page 71, page 89 misnumbered 93, chapter XVI misnumbered XIV and the final "i" is present on page vii, (in some copies it is numbered "vi"; BAL states that "examination suggests that the folio was correctly set and the 'i' may have dropped out during the printing," the sequence of states has not been established). State A of Volume II (sequence of states not determined) with "a Book" in the fifth line of the copyright notice. BAL 3833. Two twelvemo volumes (6 3/4 x 4 3/16 inches; 174 x 106 mm). [2, blank], [i]-xi, [1, blank], 282, [4, blank]; [2, blank], [4], 289, [5, blank] pp. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Brown calf spine labels, lettered in gilt. Spine stamped and numbered in gilt. Some minor foxing and toning throughout as usual. Boards and spines with some rubbing. Previous owner's old ink signature on top margin of both title-pages. In volume I, pare 121 is roughly opened. In volume II, page 279 has a tear in the blank fore-edge margin, just slightly touching a few letters. Housed in a custom full morocco clamshell. A very good copy of this American literary landmark. "This is the most famous of the Leatherstocking Tales, and the first in which the scout Natty Bumppo was made the symbol of all that was wise, heroic and romantic in the lives and characters of the white men who made the American wilderness their home. The novel glorified for many generations of readers, in England, France, Russia, and at home, some aspects of American life that were unique to our cultural history" (Grolier American 100 34). "The real triumph of Cooper is the variety of his invention, the power with which, isolating his few characters in the wilderness, he contrives to fill their existences, at least for the time being, with enough actions, desires, fears, victories, defeats, sentiments, thoughts to make the barren frontier seem a splendid stage" (DAB). BAL 3833. Grolier, 100 American, 34. Spiller & Blackburn, HBS 68994. $17,500.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Three volumes. Half titles, colophon leaf in vol. 3 (a little spotting, damp staining in vol 3). Contemporary quarter green morocco gilt and marbled boards (rubbed at extremities). A very good, unrestored set. Rare true first edition of Cooper s pirate romance. This nautical novel set in 17th-century New York was first published in a small edition in Dresden, where the author had settled in 1826. London and Philadelphia editions soon followed. Cooper had attempted to have the work printed in Rome. The tale of the abduction of a woman by the mysterious pirate captain of the Water-Witch, who is actually a woman in disguise, was deemed wholly unfit by the Papal censors. The Water Witch was the only genuine continental first of all his novels (Spiller and Blackburn). This book, in both its content and its publication history, demonstrates the truly international scope of Cooper s career. Provenance: Christie s New York, 21 September 1994, lot 56. BAL 3845; Spiller and Blackburn pp. 6-7 and 62.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First Editions, First Printings of this (2) Volume set with the First Issue points present "Volume 1, viii has final "i" in page number and page 89 is incorrectly numbered as as page 93. Both books are in nice shape bound in early calf spines with marbled boards. The bindings are tight with light wear to the spine and edges. The pages are clean with matching bookplates in each book and previous owner's name neatly written on the title pages. Volume 2 title page has some tears and paper loss. Overall, a lovely set of this TRUE FIRST EDITION in collector's condition.

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Special Edition. New York, W.A.Townsend, 1859-61, octavo 190 x 129 mm, The Complete Works, 32 volumes, gilded top edges, with all the engraved illustrations by drawings of F.O.C. Darley, tissue guards present, faint foxing to a few frontis, illustrated title pages and additional frontis, illustrations throughout, in a spectacular half morocco binding by Whitman Bennet, New York, titles and elaborate decoration on spines, raised bands, matching boards, an near perfect set of the Townsend edition including the " The last of the Mohicans", probably the best set in a most pleasing binding on the market for a long time.

Full Leather. Condition: Very Good. FIRST EDITION of Cooper's rare first novel. Two Volumes. Contemporary full mottled calf with gilt-tooled spines in compartments, and black leather spine labels. Volume One has been rebacked, preserving the original spine, and with the rear board sympathetically supplied. An early owner's name (Marshall G. Hill, Afton N.Y.) is ink-stamped on the front pastedown and rear free endpaper of Volume Two, and on the verso of the front free endpaper of Volume One. The front free endpaper of Volume Two is missing. Ink signatures have been cut from the top right blank margin of both title pages, with both excisions repaired. Internally, there is some scattered light foxing or age-toning. A Very Good set, with both half-titles and with the errata leaf inserted after the half-title in Volume One[one of several locations noted by BAL]. BAL 3825.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Two volumes, Complete with half-titles and errata leaf at end of volume 2. Contemporary half calf and marbled boards. Rebacked preserving original spines. Ligtly browned. Half morocco cases. [Bound with:] COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE. Autograph letter signed to Rev. Joseph Ransom. New York, 23 November 1845 One page, integral address leaf, affixed to front free endpaper. Minor separations and chipping. First edition of Cooper s first novel. Precaution was influenced by the works of Jane Austen and the English domestic novel. Playfully challenged by his wife s cousin to write a better book than the one he ewas reading aloud, Cooper, after a false start, produced Precaution (1820), an imitation of an English novel of manners which, though weak, brought him to the attention of the New York literary world (ANB). [Bound with:] COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE. Autograph letter signed to Rev. Joseph Ransom. New York, 23 November 1845 Cooper updates the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Cooperstown on various financial matters including the payment of Ransom s salary: Mr. Forbes tell me he held $100 of collections, which he intended to appropriate to you, in the event of the stipend failing. Ransom led Christ Episcopal Church from 1846 to 1850. Provenance: George Barr McCutcheon, American novelist and author of popular adventure-romances, bookplate. He is most famous today for Brewster s Millions, the basis for the many film adaptations. BAL 3825. Signed by Author(s).

First edition, one of just a few copies to survive, the rarest of Cooper's works. xii, 207, [1 blank]; [4], 292; [4], 250, [1] pp. Half-titles to each volume present. Imprint leaf at end. Small 8vo. The Dresden Water Witch. The Water Witch was written in Naples and was first printed in Dresden in September 1830, a month before the English edition, and two months before the American. It is the only book by Cooper to be both printed and published first in Germany One of the exceptional rarities in American literature, the true first, Dresden edition of "Water-Witch." Only about ten copies of this edition are recorded as having survived. The novel was published in London on October 14th, 1830, and in Philadelphia on December 11th. The original contract between Cooper and Walther dated in May of 1830 is in the Early American Fiction Collection at UVA. BAL 3845 (locating only one copy); Spiller and Blackburn #12, pp. 64-65 Contemporary half calf and marbled boards, vellum spine label. Rebacked, preserving original spine. Some light foxing. Graf Yorck Klein-Oels Majorats-Bibliothek stamps on vol. I title xii, 207, [1 blank]; [4], 292; [4], 250, [1] pp. Half-titles to each volume present. Imprint leaf at end. Small 8vo First edition, one of just a few copies to survive, the rarest of Cooper's works.

New York: Wiley & Halsted, 1821. First edition of perhaps the scarcest of all Cooper titles. Volume II in the second state as usual with pages numbers 285 and 286 correctly positioned. Two twelvemo volumes (7 1/16 x 4 1/4 inches; 180 x 108 mm). xii, 251, [1, blank]; 286, [2, blank] pp. Contemporary full calf. Joints expertly repaired. With repairs to head and tail of the spines as well. Boards tooled in gilt. Spine stamped in gilt, with black morocco spine labels, lettered in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Scattered browning and foxing, as expected in an American book of this era. Small repair to top of title-page of both volumes, not affecting text. Title-page of volume I trimmed just short at bottom edge, (about an eighth of an inch), not affecting text. Two leaves in volume II (pages 189-192) with corners torn, not affecting text. Rear flyleaf of volume II with piece missing. A very good copy of this rare and early Cooper novel. Housed in quarter morocco chemise and full morocco slipcase. James Cooper's first book, Precaution, was a failure. His second, The Spy, was published a year later (1821) and fortunately for James (who not only carried the burden of debt and care of his own family, but had also assumed responsibility for his brothers' widows and children), it became an instant success. Published both in the U.S. and Europe, it was the first of a long line of both fiction and non-fiction that brought Cooper fame and respect. In it was established Cooper's typical attitude toward plot and characterization, being significant for its use of the American scene as the background for a romance. BAL 3826. Spiller & Blackburn, 2. Sabin 16533 HBS 68608. $10,000.

Full leather in clamshell case. Condition: Very Good. First Editions. 12mo. Two volumes bound as one. Pp. [2], 251, [1], 286, [2]. Original calf with black morocco spine label gilt, along with elaborate gilt decorations on the spine. Rejointed, with some edge repairs; contents with a few small marginal repairs and restorations, variably foxed and stained. Double-spine drop-down-back clamshell case, half polished calf over marbled paper covered boards, red and black spine labels, gilt rules, brown felt lining. First edition, second state of Vol. II, with pages 285 and 286 in succession. We might add that the first issue of the second volume was seen by perhaps only bibliographer Blanck.Cooper's rare second novel, which launched his career and is now recognized as a harbinger of the espionage genre and indeed one of the first serious American novels. It laid the foundation on which Hawthorne, Melville and all subsequent American novelists poured forth, Twain's criticism withstanding.This copy notable for the unsophisticated contemporary binding: a pure example. BAL 3826; SABIN 16533.

James Fenimore CooperÕs own personally handwritten working draft for his contract with publisher George P. Putnam to publish an original work of fiction which eventually was published as The Ways of the Hour, CooperÕs last novel. This is a full page in CooperÕs hand and it refers to Putnam by name as publisher and bears the full name of J. Fenimore Cooper twice and the last name Cooper four times. A long and interesting contract that surprisingly reads much like a modern publishing agreement with Cooper intimately involved in the publishing process. Cooper agrees to produce Òa new work of fictionÓ and that he will provide Putnam with the finished printing Òstereotype platesÓ for a novel Òcustomary size, in two volumes duodecimo.Ó The contract goes on in great detail about royalties, PutnamÕs rights as publisher, fees, and penalties, and that at the end of two years that PutnamÕs license to publish the novel will end, and that the printing plates will be returned to Cooper. When the New York publishing firm of Wiley & Putnam dissolved in 1847, George P. Putnam (1814-1872) established his own house and built up a literary backlist that forms the foundation of mid-nineteenth-century American letters. Putnam brought out a uniform edition of Washington Irving and soon thereafter began to publish CooperÕs internationally famous novels in a standard edition, beginning with The Spy and The Pilot in April and October 1849 (BAL 3932-33); twelve novels (including The Last of the Mohicans) were ultimately re-issued between 1849 and 1851. Noted Cooper scholar, Warren S. Walker, notes that this ambitious final novel that Cooper Òevidences his concern about Ôthe ways of the hourÕ: lack of principle as shown in flagrant abuse of justice by elected judges, incompetent jurors, culpable.lawyers, and an irresponsible press; an unreasoning worship of mass opinion; and failure to pursue the truth beneath the trappings of appearance. The vehicle for exploring the sociological theme is a mid-1840s murder trial assuming the pattern of a murder mystery, a Ôwhodunit,Õ complete with aliases, cloak-and-dagger schemes, a ÔrevivedÕ corpse, a missing treasure, a series of Ôjailbreaks,Õ bribery, and a madwoman.Ó Cooper was the first American novelist to receive international acclaim and AmericaÕs first best-selling author. American publishing agreements from the first half of the 19th century and especially from a major figure like Cooper (and drafted by himself) are of the greatest rarity.

32 volumes. The Red Rover Edition. Each volume with a handsome frontispiece illustration and decorated titlepage. Tall 8vo (8.5 x 6 in.), beautifully bound in contemporary three-quarter russet morocco over tan cloth-covered boards, the backs and corner-pieces gilt trimmed, the spines with gilt tooled raised bands between compartments triple-gilt framed with small corner tools, two compartments gilt lettered, additional gilt ruling at the heads and tails, marbled end-leaves. A beautiful set, handsome indeed and very well preserved, with everything in proper order inside and out. THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ONE OF AMERICA'S GREATEST WRITERS. Cooper was an avid reader in an age when most literature in America was imported from England. But as an author, he decided early on that he could well do a better job of writing for a growing and distinctly American readership than could his European counterparts. Cooper did far more than to imitate the European authors he had read, instead developing a great new American style by which quite quickly he became one of the first and greatest literary giants of the New World. His works reflect themes and emotions unique to a people living on the edge of the great American wilderness and Cooper would prove to be widely read, not only in America, but throughout all of Europe as well. His achievement.the result of brilliant improvisation.was sustained.to the close of a hectic, crowded career. His.fame attests his power of invention.the creation of tension between different kinds of society, between society and the individual, between the settlement and the wilderness, and between civil law and natural rights as these suggest issues of moral and mythic import. His works, especially the "Leatherstocking Tales such as LAST OF THE MOHICANS, remain to this day foundational classics in American literature.

Letter. An incredible three-page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED on two sheets of 8-1/2" x 6-7/8" paper by the author of THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS written on behalf of James Henry Hackett (1800-1871) to his old friend Charles Augustus Murray (1806-1895) who was at this time consul-general in Egypt. In part: After imparting news of Hackett, Cooper reports on his age and on the development of his country: "Half my time passes me, in looking back. At sixty, if a man is ever to sum up the good and evil of his past life, it is high time he began. I was sixty-one last September and have grown gray. We are 'progressing' as we Americans call it, at a famous rate. New York must have doubled its population, recently, since you saw it. Taking all things together, I regard New York as the most remarkable town in the world. Trade is driving all before it, and has fairly invaded Broadway. Talking of the dust, which is so shortly to be my portion [Cooper died the next year], one of the most painful of my recollections of my own travels, is the great number of the dead, among the acquaintances I made. At one time it really seemed as if to know me was to die. My eldest daughter, whom you may remember, has ventured to give the world a book called 'Rural Hours.' In this country it has done very well. There is a good deal of rumbling in our body politic, but I think nothing will come of it, just now. The South has too much at stake to risk, and every day it loses, increases the disparity of the forces. This acquisition of California, hems in slavery, which must finally fall of its own weight. What we are to do with the blacks, God knows, but we shall never amalgamate." Cooper goes on to discuss the importance of gold in expanding business ("a circulating medium being the great necessity of America") and devotes a paragraph to a paranormal phenomenon which he calls "the knockings": "All attempts at explanation are failures. They are not confined to one family, or one place, but have been heard in fifty places." He closes "Do not ask Hackett about my comedy, premature damnation being best forgotten." Housed in a cloth folder titled on the spine. Hackett was a successful character actor on the New York and London stages, who was considered for a part in Cooper's sole and unsuccessful attempt at playwriting, UPSIDE DOWN. This letter was given to Hackett to present to Murray in London (and is noted by James F. Beard ed., LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER: 6:229, n.2 as "unlocated"). Fine condition with dark ink in a Fine folder of this exceptional letter.

"The Growing Corruption of Civilization" James Fenimore Cooper's The Chainbearer in the Original Printed Wrappers A Remarkable Survival COOPER, James Fenimore. The Chainbearer; or The Littlepage Manuscripts. Edited by the Author of "Satanstoe," "Spy," "Pathfinder," "Two Admirals, " etc. In Two Volumes. New-York: Burgess, Stringer and Company, 1845. First American Edition. Two octavo volumes (7 11/16 x 4 9/16 inches; 196 x 117 mm.). [i]-iii, iv-vi, 7-212; [1-3], 4-228 pp. Publisher's pale buff paper printed wrappers. The wrappers have been noted by BAL in three different states. No sequence has been determined and the order presented is arbitrary. The wrappers may have been printed simultaneously. In the present copy the wrappers on volume I are in State 'B' with inner front "Mrs. Ellis's Housekeeping"; inner back "History of All Christian Sects." and back wrapper with "The Great Book". The wrappers on volume II are in State 'A' with inner front "New and Beautiful Edition"; inner back "The Great Book" and back wrapper with "Cheap Books". Some light scattered foxing and or staining. Clean tear to lower margin of pp. iii/iv of preface in volume one. Lower wrapper of volume one with small piece (1 5/8 x 9/16 inches maximum) torn away from blank margin not touching any of the print on recto or verso, a couple of stains on the front and rear wrappers. A remarkable survival, generally bright and fresh, with no restoration whatsoever. Individually chemised and housed in a quarter red morocco over red cloth board slip-case. The first London edition, which preceded the American edition by about one month, was published in three volumes on November 22nd, 1845. The Chainbearer; or The Littlepage Manuscripts is the second book in a trilogy starting with Satanstoe (1845) and ending with The Redskins (1846). The novel focuses mainly on issues of land ownership and the displacement of American Indians as the United States moves Westward. Critical to the trilogy of these novels, is the sense of expansion through the measuring and acquisition of land by civilization. The title The Chainbearer represents "the man who carries the chains in measuring the land, the man who helps civilization to grow from the wilderness, but who at the same time continues the chain of evil, increases the potentiality for corruption." The central position of the "Chainbearer" allows Cooper to deal with the cultural lack of understanding Native Americans had of European concepts of land ownership. This in turn allows Cooper to critique ownership in general. Also, Cooper, like in many of his novels, focuses on the growing corruption of individuals in "civilization" as it expands. This Cooper attributes "an inherent principle in the corrupt nature of man to misuse all his privileges. . . . If history proves anything, it proves this." Two characters, in particular, represent this growing corruption of civilization, Andries Mordaunt, the chainbearer, and Aaron, known as "Thousandacres". The men represent different types of the civilization, Mordaunt as the usurper of old civilization and Thousandacres representing an older society which the new "civilization" means to usurp. Eventually this new civilization decides to embrace force in order to lay full claim on the land. This displacement of Native Americans by the ever expansionist Americans repeatedly becomes an issue for Cooper throughout the trilogy of novels. In so doing, Cooper presents a very strong critique of Americans and America. (Wikipedia).

Author's Autograph Edition. "Author's Autograph Edition" With hand-colored engraved frontispiece on Japanese vellum in each volume, photogravure vignette on title pages, engraved plates throughout with captioned tissue guards. 33 vols. Small 4to. With an Autograph Manuscript Leaf. A handsome and finely illustrated set of Cooper's works, number 21 of 63 copies, with an original autograph leaf of 42 lines from the manuscript of Cooper's 1848 novel, "The Oak Openings; or, The Bee Hunter" tipped-in to the first volume. The novel takes place in Kalamazoo, Michiigan's Oak Opening during the War of 1812 and is about honey-hunter "Ben Buzz." Cf. Spiller and Blackburn p 173 Original 3/4 blue morocco over marbled boards, spines elaborately gilt, t.e.g. Perforated institutional stamp on title pages With hand-colored engraved frontispiece on Japanese vellum in each volume, photogravure vignette on title pages, engraved plates throughout with captioned tissue guards. 33 vols. Small 4to.

Three vols. 12mo, bound in cont. German brown morocco for Duke William of Brunswick (1806-84), with his elaborate arms inlaid on all six covers, sides elaborately gilt, spines richly gilt, a.e.g. Paris: Baudry, 1825. First edition to be printed on the Continent. Certainly no other copy of The Spy has ever been bound in such an "over the top" fashion. Very fine set with the elaborately gilt bookplate of Duke William [Wilhelm], nephew of King George III of Britain, in each volume. The first volume lacks the half-title.

Hardcover. Condition: Near fine. Limited Edition. Large octavo, 33 volumes, illustrated (complete). A fresh, clean, lovely set in the publisher's 3/4 crushed very dark green morocco and textured marbled cloth boards, with matching endpapers. Spines gently and evenly faded to a brownish-green, but the set otherwise very well-preserved. Internally stunning. This is number 34 of just 63 sets. The "Author's Autograph Edition" somwhat under-sells it. Rather than containing Cooper's autograph, a manuscript leaf of 39 lines in Cooper's hand from his 1848 novel "The Oak-Openings, or The Bee-Hunter" is neatly tipped onto a front blank in the volume containing "The Spy." A very handsome set, overall very near fine.

First French Edition (text in English). 170 x 103 mm. (6 3/4 x 4"). Three volumes. REGAL CONTEMPORARY BEIGE MOROCCO, GILT AND INLAID, covers with gilt frame and inlaid cornerpieces of pink and burgundy morocco in floral designs, ARMS OF WILLIAM, DUKE OF BRUNSWICK, at center, inlaid in red and green morocco and lavishly gilt, raised bands, spine panels with graceful design of flowers and acanthus leaves, gilt lettering, gilt-ruled turn-ins, all edges gilt. Front pastedowns with bookplate of Wilhelm, Herzog zu Braunschweig, printed in colors and embossed with gilt; title pages with ink stamp "Prinz von Braunschweig." â Spines darkened to tan, head panels with traces of brown residue, possibly from library labels, boards faintly soiled at edges, but A FINE SET with no signs of use, inside or out. This is an exceptionally fine copy, with distinguished provenance, of the first Paris printing of a nautical adventure by a great American writer who enjoyed unusual popularity in France. Set during the American Revolution and first printed in 1823, "The Pilot" has for its protagonist a real-life American naval hero, John Paul Jones. Cooper (1789-1851) had himself worked as a commercial seaman and served in the U.S. Navy, and his firsthand knowledge of both the technical aspects of seamanship and the day-to-day realities of life at sea lend a ring of authenticity to his sea novels, of which this was the first. According to Encyclopedia Americana, "Cooper may be said in 'The Pilot' to have created a new literary type, the tale of adventure on the sea . . . . Smollett had already discovered the racy humors of seamen, but he had seen little else in their calling; it remained for Cooper to capture for fiction the mystery and beauty, the shock and thrill, of the sea, which in his pages has much of the proud pomp of Byron's ocean." Cooper spent the years 1826-28 in Paris, where his literary reputation gained him access to the best salons, and where he became a close friend of the marquis de Lafayette. Given the ornate decoration and the quality of materials and execution, this binding was very likely done by a Parisian workshop as a commission for Duke William of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1806-84), the last member of his family to rule the duchy of Brunswick. Although he was the ruler of the Duchy of Brunswick for more than 50 years, he preferred to spend his time enjoying the life of an aristocrat and left most of the official business to his ministers. He also failed to produce a legitimate heir (though he had a number of illegitimate children), and ended the House of Brunswick's rule over the duchy.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 3 vols. 6.75 x 4", half leather; marbled boards, 276pp, 267pp; 292pp, covers rubbed, extremities bumped and chipping, spine ends chipped, outer hinges tender, old ink name of former owner inside front covers, some light spotting and finger soil to foredge margins, but still a decent (but a bit fragile) set. Early European edition; published in the same year as the First US and UK Edition. One copy located in NUC.

2 Bände in einem.Kl.-8°. 2 Bl., 275 S.; 2 Bl., 340 S. Halblederband der Zeit. Coopers anonym erschienener Erstling in der äusserst seltenen Erstausgabe. - Die beiden Bände zu einem gebunden; ohne die Interimsbroschuren. Der Einband ist bestossen; die zweite Hälfte des zweiten Bandes stärker stockfleckig.

8vo (192:134 mm). 1 p. on a single bifolium. Address panel to verso. In remarkably good French, to the engineer Pierre-Alexandre Adolphe Jullien, thanking him for his concern about his health, and gives an estimate for the publication date of the forthcoming French edition of The Prairie ("sans doute, pendant le mois d'avril", depending on the industry of the translator and publisher) and he makes some social arrangements in Paris. Cooper had brought his family to Paris the previous year, becoming the centre of a small but influential circle of American expatriots. - Traces of seal, slight loss to upper forecorner from opening (expert old repair, no loss). Early annotation in French to head describing Cooper as "le Walter-Scott de l amérique du nord". Provenance: Charavay, Paris.

First English Edition; three volumes; published about a month later than the Philadelphia edition of the same year. Publisher's paper-covered boards with brown paper spines; joints weak or breaking; some wear and tear; minor page stains, but overall a very good set and rare in original boards. It is typically found contemporarily bound in some combination of leather and boards (the paper-covered publisher's boards were intended to be temporary) or rebound later. Each front board has the ink signature 'Ellenborough' and inside each cover is the stamp identifying these as the 'Earl of Ellenborough's Heirlooms.' The Earl died in 1871 and this noble title died with him. There are half-titles in volumes II and III and a pencil note in an unidentified hand notes that volume I was not issued with one. In a custom cloth slipcase with chemise. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.

First Edition. "COOPER, James Fenimore. Precaution, a Novel. New York: A.T. Goodrich, 1820. Two volumes. Small octavo, 20th-century full brown morocco gilt, marbled endpapers. $5500.First edition of Cooper's first novel, published anonymously, handsomely bound by Bennett."Playfully challenged by his wife's cousin to write a better book than one he was reading aloud, Cooper, after a false start, produced Precaution (1820), an imitation of an English novel of manners, which brought him to the attention of the New York literary world" (ANB). Until the publication of Precaution, Cooper had been a gentleman farmer with large debts. His literary career was so immediately successful that his financial problems were solved by 1826, the year in which The Last of the Mohicans appeared. His writing career continued until 1850, one year before his death. "His worldwide fame attests his power of invention, for his novels have been popular principally for their variety of dramatic incidents, vivid depiction of romantic scenes and situations, and adventurous plots. But a more sophisticated view caused a revival of interest in the mid-20th century concentrating on Cooper's novels in their creation of tension between different kinds of society, between society and the individual, between the settlement and the wilderness, and between civil law and natural rights" (Hart, 165-66). Bound without errata leaf. Spiller & Blackburn 1. BAL 3825. Bookplates. Contemporary owner signature on first page of text in Volume I partly trimmed away.Scattered foxing and dampstaining, more so in Volume I. A rare Cooper title.".