The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757.

COOPER, James Fenimore.

Item Number: 7392

Philadelphia: H.C. Carey & I. Lea, 1826.

First edition, first issue with page 89 misnumbered 93, Chapter XVI numbered XIV in Volume I (page 243), and page vii correctly numbered. Octavo, 2 volumes, bound in contemporary half calf over boards. In very good condition with some rubbing to the boards, the text is remarkably clean. These volumes were purchased from a California family who had owned them since the 1870s. Housed in a custom half leather box.

“The Last of the Mohicans 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). "[Cooper's] sympathy is large, and his humor is as genuine—and as perfectly unaffected—as his art" (Joseph Conrad). It was the basis for the film, directed by Michael Mann starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, and Jodhi May,