THE COMPLETE WORKS OF J.[AMES] FENIMORE COOPER

32 volumes. The Red Rover Edition. Each volume with a handsome frontispiece illustration and decorated titlepage. Tall 8vo (8.5 x 6 in.), beautifully bound in contemporary three-quarter russet morocco over tan cloth-covered boards, the backs and corner-pieces gilt trimmed, the spines with gilt tooled raised bands between compartments triple-gilt framed with small corner tools, two compartments gilt lettered, additional gilt ruling at the heads and tails, marbled end-leaves. A beautiful set, handsome indeed and very well preserved, with everything in proper order inside and out.

Edizione: the complete works of one of america's greatest writers. 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. 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.’<br> his works, especially the "leatherstocking tales such as last of the mohicans, remain to this day foundational classics in american literature.