Details
COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE. Autograph letter signed ("J. Fenimore Cooper") to Alexander B. Grant in London, Cooperstown, 17 May 1847. 1 1/2 pages, 4to, integral blank leaf, docketed by Grant.
"I HAVE NEVER HAD ANY EXPECTATIONS OF BEING KNOWN BEYOND THE PRESENT DAY"
Written in response to a letter from Grant requesting Cooper's opinion of the eighteenth-century Scottish poets Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson, assistance in obtaining American editions of their works, and information about American descendants of Fergusson. "I have no copies of the works of Ramsey [sic] or Ferguson [sic] acceptible to me, at this place, and it is so long since I read either that I should hesitate about giving the sort of opinion you evidently expect. Fortunately, the reputations of neither is in the least dependent on my estimate of his merits, and I pass this part of the contents of your letter by..."
"...I am very sensible of your goodness in expressing so favourable opinion of my works. I have never had any expectations of being known beyond the present day, and am not ignorant that my popularity, whatever it may have been a few years since, has now been many years on the decline. The publisher's returns let an author know that fact is a way not to be mistaken, and, if mine did not, my own countrymen would take very good care to undeceive me. Fortunately literary ambition does not enter very largely into the composition of happiness, and I take the world as it goes, without grieving much about my failure. In a very few years it will be all the same to me whether my name stands on the top of the ladder or, as will be very likely to be the case, on one of its lower [rungs?]..." Cooper concludes with a long postscript: "In this country, it is somewhat difficult to get the history of the editions of a book, on account of the great number of places in which the publishers live. I have, however, one or two collectors among my friends -- all my own books could be put into a large trunk -- and I shall endeavor to aid you..." Not in Letters, ed. J.F. Beard, and apparently unpublished.
"I HAVE NEVER HAD ANY EXPECTATIONS OF BEING KNOWN BEYOND THE PRESENT DAY"
Written in response to a letter from Grant requesting Cooper's opinion of the eighteenth-century Scottish poets Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson, assistance in obtaining American editions of their works, and information about American descendants of Fergusson. "I have no copies of the works of Ramsey [sic] or Ferguson [sic] acceptible to me, at this place, and it is so long since I read either that I should hesitate about giving the sort of opinion you evidently expect. Fortunately, the reputations of neither is in the least dependent on my estimate of his merits, and I pass this part of the contents of your letter by..."
"...I am very sensible of your goodness in expressing so favourable opinion of my works. I have never had any expectations of being known beyond the present day, and am not ignorant that my popularity, whatever it may have been a few years since, has now been many years on the decline. The publisher's returns let an author know that fact is a way not to be mistaken, and, if mine did not, my own countrymen would take very good care to undeceive me. Fortunately literary ambition does not enter very largely into the composition of happiness, and I take the world as it goes, without grieving much about my failure. In a very few years it will be all the same to me whether my name stands on the top of the ladder or, as will be very likely to be the case, on one of its lower [rungs?]..." Cooper concludes with a long postscript: "In this country, it is somewhat difficult to get the history of the editions of a book, on account of the great number of places in which the publishers live. I have, however, one or two collectors among my friends -- all my own books could be put into a large trunk -- and I shall endeavor to aid you..." Not in Letters, ed. J.F. Beard, and apparently unpublished.