Mid 19th Century Leather Volumes, James Fenimore Cooper's Novels - 14 Books

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Title: James Fenimore Cooper's Novels.
Author: Cooper, James Fenimore.
Publisher: Hurd and Houghton.
Printer: Cambridge: Riverside Press.
Publication date: 1869.
… Read more Title: James Fenimore Cooper's Novels.
Author: Cooper, James Fenimore.
Publisher: Hurd and Houghton.
Printer: Cambridge: Riverside Press.
Publication date: 1869.
Place: New York.

Individual title(s): The Spy (550 p.) [1821], The Pioneers (609 p.) [1823], Red Rover (534 p.) [1828], Wish-ton-Wish (483 p.) [1829], Bravo (474 p.) [1831], The Monikins (491 p.) [1835], Home as Found (489 p.) [1838], The Wing-and-Wing (440 p.) [1842], Wallingford (426 p.) [1844], Afloat and Ashore (502 p.) [1844], Satanstoe (461 p.) [1845], The Chainbearer (438 p.) [1845], The Redskins (476 p.) [1846], Ways of the Hour (512 p.) [1850]

About this item: 6, 885 Pp. total. 8vo. 14 of 32 volumes. 3/4 red leather hardcovers, gilt stamped/embossed title and floral design over spines, feature 5 raised hubs, black title labels, matched marble boards/endpapers/full leaf edges.

Dimensions: 7 H x 4.75 D x 1 (16 overall) inches.


About the author and works: James Fenimore Cooper (1789 – 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances depicting frontier and Native American life from the 17th to the 19th centuries created a unique form of American literature. Cooper's work, particularly The Pioneers (present), demonstrate an early 19th-century American preoccupation with alternating prudence and negligence in a country where property rights were often still in dispute.

Cooper was one of the first major American novelists to include African, African-American and Native American characters in his works. In particular, Native Americans play central roles in his Leatherstocking tales. However, his treatment of this group is complex and highlights the tenuous relationship between frontier settlers and American Indians as exemplified in The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish (present), depicting a captured white girl who marries an Indian chief and has a baby with him, but after several years is eventually returned to her parents.

Provenance: Each volume hand-stamped with the mark of "G.H.W. Crockett" on the front free endpapers. George Henry William (G.H.W.) Crockett (1824-1889) was a native of Maine that became well known in the Old Frontier West as a Wells Fargo agent; A.k.a. the Pony Express. He was also a Freemason (Masonic Lodge #8) and county treasurer of Lander county, Nevada. His trade work began as an express wagon driver for Freeman & Co. (1851-1859) where he received $100 a month salary. The pioneering firm was the leading express between San Francisco (S.F.), Sacramento and Marysville, ultimately expanded to Nevada City. Prospects for the firm changed due to the loss of favorable connections. By summer 1859, Freeman & Co. was in decline, then Wells Fargo stepped in and paid a premium to acquire the firm. On November 3, 1859, Crockett remarked in his journal, now in the Bancroft Library (University of California Berkeley), that Wells Fargo had "paid the Piper." Crockett went on to become Wells Fargo's agent in Austin, Nevada, from 1864 to 1889. The Overland Stage was then running through Austin, the principal travel to and from the West passed through that point. Well Fargo's Express accumulated in the Austin office, in quantities of many tons, until with the baggage of delayed travelers, it was difficult to transact business in the quarters occupied. This became very fatiguing to the office work force, thus G.H.W. Crockett, a veteran in the service, was asked for from S.F. and he encouraged the poor overworked clerks and porters. Further, he was as gritty a worker as Wells Fargo ever had, he taxed the employees endurance to the utmost limits to perform their tasks. As time went on, the challenge was relentless, but the intense excitement attendant upon the travel and handling of baggage and silver bullion, and the fortunes being made by lucky prospectors was a constant stimulus to exertion, and perhaps enabled them to endure the physical strain consequent upon overwork and loss of sleep.

GHW Crockett journal note/diary: "Monday Nov 8, 1886. Cloudy, blustery, cold & disagreeable -- About town most of day talking political matters -- At 9:30 AM visited the kindergarten school of Misses McCracken and Tinlayson with Alfie and Goodie -- Very interesting exercises by the 24 little girls and boys belonging to it, including Goodie -- Was at Reno Journal offices couple Mrs Lew Stevenson -- Earthquakes 17 of times -- Evening a heavy snow storm apparently coming before morning -- Wife and I visited Mrs Lew Stevenson at the Golden Eagle Hotel, a short distance around the block from our home -- She was lately returned from a 11 years absence in Colorado & the East, with her son Charlie -- Two shocks of earthquakes were felt here in Reno today -- one at 9:30 AM and the other 2 PM -- the first shock shook down can goods, bottles, etc in some of the stores, yet the damage was slight -- Jeff Hull -- 1886 -- G H W Crockett". See less