The Last of the Mohicans, A Narrative of 1757

1831, the first single volume edition with a new introduction by J F Cooper

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

First edition thus (first single volume edition, revised, corrected and with new introduction by the author). Hardback, bound in half-leather with three raised bands, gilt decoration and contrasting title label in red leather, and marbled paper covered boards. 17 × 10.5cm, × + 401pp, with frontispiece, engraved title and printed title.

Not signed as such but with the ownership stamp and label to the printed title page of Thomas Kitchingman Hutchinson Staveley of Old Sleningford Hall in North Yorkshire.

It is 1757. Across north-eastern America the armies of Britain and France struggle for ascendancy. Their conflict, however, overlays older struggles between nations of native Americans for possession of the same lands and between the native peoples and white colonisers. Through these layers of conflict Cooper threads a thrilling narrative, in which Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of a British commander on the front line of the colonial war, attempt to join their father. Thwarted by Magua, the sinister 'Indian runner', they find help in the person of Hawkeye, the white woodsman, and his companions, the Mohican Chingachgook and Uncas, his son, the last of his tribe.

Condition

This copy is in very good condition for age. There is some light rubbing to the leather and boards. The engraved title page is started to loosen but remains attached. The inner binding is sound but with a little straining in places, and the pages are clean with occasional light spotted foxing, though the frontis and engraved title have some tanning.