PRÉCAUTION, OU LE CHOIX D'UN MARI....
Cooper, James F.:
Paris: Librairie de Charles Gosselin / Mame et Delaunay-Vallée, Libraires, 1825. Four volumes bound in two. [4],4,xi,[1],249,[1];[4],227;[2],256;[4],263pp. Contemporary mottled French calf, spines gilt extra, gilt crimson labels, gilt decorated borders to boards. Corners quite worn, spine ends chipped, but sound; scattered foxing, binder's free endsheet in second volume imperfect, and first half-title in that volume excised; still, a sound set, enclosed in a half morocco case and cloth wrapper. First edition in French of the author's first novel, translated by A.-J.-B. Defauconpret, and with a long prefatory essay about Cooper and his works by the publisher. A copy of particular significance, inscribed on the title-page of the first volume: "J. Fenimore Cooper makes his niece Georgianna Pomeroy a present of this translation wishing for her own sake and that of the translator that it was better done." Cooper's dissatisfaction with the translation, and with Gosselin's cavalier attitude about payment, is recorded in the Cooper correspondence. Cooper resided in Paris from 1826 to 1829, where he had been greeted on his arrival by a considerable reputation due to the popularity of his tales. He found himself the center of literary and fashionable circles, and Gosselin undertook the continued publication of almost all of Cooper's fiction. The recipient of this presentation copy, Georgianna Cooper Pomeroy Keese (1806-1865) was the eldest daughter of Cooper's sister, Ann (1784 - 1870). While Cooper manuscript material and family associative items are not uncommon, actual inscribed presentation copies of one of his own books from Cooper to another party, whether family or not, are rare indeed in the marketplace. SPILLER & BLACKBURN, p.19.
(Item ID: WRCLIT60384) $9,500.00
Presentation Copy