Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Cooper, James. The Last of the Mohicans, Vol. II. H. C. Carey & I. Lea, 1826.
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Vol. II. First issue with "a book" on line 5 of copyright page. Original marble boards with leather spine. Book very good, some repair done to gutters, bookplate attached to front paste-down, foxing and wear.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
Cooper, James Fenimore. Last of the Mohicans. H.C. Carey & I. Lea, Philadelphia, 1826.
Price: US$15000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: 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.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
Price: US$17500.00 + shipping
Description: 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.
Seller: Heritage Book Shop, ABAA, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$19750.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 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.
Seller: Clarel Rare Books, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Cooper, James. The Last of the Mohicans, Vol. I and II. H. C. Carey & I. Lea, Philadelphia, 1826.
Price: US$20000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Vol. 1 First edition with 1826 on title page. Rebound in original leather covers and new cloth spine. Vol. II. First edition with 1826 on the title page. First issue with "a book" on line 5 of copyright page. Original marble boards with leather spine. Book very good, some repair done to gutters, bookplate attached to front paste-down, foxing and wear.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$20350.00 + shipping
Description: 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 (17831854) 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, 183640. DAB; Martin Kaufman and others, Dictionary of Medical Biography [1984], 2:6756; 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. 1109. 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.
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
Cooper, James Fenimore. THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. H.C. Carey & I. Lea, Philadelphia, 1826.
Price: US$22500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 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.
Seller: Type Punch Matrix, Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
Cooper, James Fenimore. Last of the Mohicans. H.C. Carey & I. Lea, Philadelphia, 1826.
Price: US$27500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: 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.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
Price: US$45000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: 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.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.