Memoir of John Murray
James Fenimore Cooper to John Murray, 29 October 1822
November 29th, 1822.
Sir,
The yellow fever has caused a delay in the appearance of
‘The
Pioneer.’ But I now send you matter enough to make two of your
volumes. I shall forward the remainder some time before publishing here. I have
announced the book as a “descriptive tale,” but perhaps have
confined myself too much to describing the scenes of my own youth. I know the
present taste is for action and strong excitement; and in this respect I am
compelled to acknowledge
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| JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. | 135 |
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that the two first volumes are
deficient. I however am not without hopes that the third will be thought to
make some amends. If there be any value in truth, the pictures are very
faithful, and I can safely challenge a scrutiny in this particular. But the
world must be left to decide for itself, and I believe it is very seldom that
it decides wrong. . . . I ought, in justice to myself to say that, in
opposition to a thousand good resolutions, ‘The
Pioneer’ has been more hastily and carelessly written than any
of my books. Not a line has been copied, and it has gone from my desk to the
printers. I have not to this moment been able even to read it. The corrections
I have made are from queries of Mr.
Wily, or by glancing over the work; so that if you find any errors
in grammar, or awkward sentences, you are at liberty to have them altered,
though I should wish the latter to be done very sparingly, both because one
man’s style seldom agrees with another, and because a similar liberty was
abused to a degree in ‘Precaution’ that materially injured the work.
Believe me, yours very faithfully,
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
American novelist educated at Yale College; he was author of
The Last
of the Mohicans (1826) and the other Leatherstocking Tales.
Charles Wiley (1782-1826)
New York bookseller who started business in 1807; the firm published James Fenimore
Cooper, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, and Edgar Allan Poe.
