Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library© 2010 By the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. All rights reserved.
Processed by: Special Collections Staff
Researchers must use the microfilm of The Pathfinder manuscript unless permission to use the original is obtained from senior Special Collections staff.
See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.
Papers of James Fenimore Cooper, Accession #6245-a, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
This collection was deposited on 1960 April 16 and made a gift on July 1, 1991.
The bulk of the collection is dated 1813-1850 and consists of correspondence with literary agents, publishers, friends, business associates, historians, and literary figures, relating to Cooper's career, legal and financial affairs, travels in Europe, family, and social life; manuscripts for The Pathfinder (1840), The Two Admirals (1842), and Mercedes of Castile (1840), partial manuscripts for The History of the Navy of the United States of America (1839), The Pilot (1823), Afloat and Ashore (1844), and The Water Witch (1831), and printer's manuscript for Home As Found (1838) with holograph corrections by Cooper; legal documents relating to Cooper's libel suit against James Watson Webb and to his land holdings in New York; correspondence of Cooper's daughter, Susan Fenimore Cooper, chiefly with William Branford Shubrick, relating to her father's death, his religious beliefs, and Cooper family genealogy; book reviews, prints, and engravings.
Cooper's correspondents include William Cullen Bryant, Richard Henry Dana, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, Jay family, and William Gilmore Simms. Susan Cooper's correspondents include Felix Octavius Darley, George Washington Greene, and Charles Mathews. Many of the letters have been published in The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, edited by James F. Beard (1960).
comprises chapters 12, 13, and 14 (pp. 144-186 of volume I, 1831) and chapters 10, 16 (pp. 138-251 of volume II.), ca. 150 pages (in the hand of an amanuensis but filled with Cooper's autograph corrections and revisions)
Bound blue volume, Barrett Room
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. 1, (page 29).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 38).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 39).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 68).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 70).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 158).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 200).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 228).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 239).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 239).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 260).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 255).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 353).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 417).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 431).
This letter is not printed in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper .
Regrets. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. II, (page 67).
Comments on Water Witch pp.109-110, and literary popularity. Reflections on Americans in Europe and his wish that his daughters not marry abroad. Good letter. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. II, (page 102).
Literary matters. Comments re The Bravo . Mentions Spy and Pilot . This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. II, (page 115).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. II, (page 135).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. I, (page 136-137, last par. only).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. II, (page 161).
Missing 3/27/68.
In French. Sending letter of credit.
Missing 3/27/68. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. II, (page 365).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. II, (page 396).
This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. III, (page 325).
Financial affairs.
Financial affairs. Refers to contract with Lea & Co. for 2 books which are already printed but not yet issued because of hard times. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 10).
Trip to N.Y.C. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 40).
Re plans for latter's trip to Cooperstown.
Literary, re Imagination and Heart. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 110).
Political views; comments re Whigs and Webster, and court battles (personal). This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 113).
Re account.
Social.
Sending autograph; but mentions Mohicans, Prairie, Pathfinder, and Deerslayer. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 188).
Literary, re Gleanings and the disadvantages of being a writer in U.S. Good letter. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 194).
Legal matter.
Re articles on naval history. Opinion against biographies of living men. Portraits. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 285).
Reviews Naval History litigation. Possibly good letter to show example of J. F. C.'s legal tangles. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 297).
Recommendation for naval duty.
Autograph. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 308).
Re Deerslayer characters of Judith and Hetty. Good letter. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 308).
Recommendation for a minister. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 320).
Re publication of "Autobiography of a Pocket Handker- chief" and "Oliver Hazard Perry." This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 321).
Beautiful letter of condolence on the death of her brother, Peter Augustus Jay. Reflections on friendship and death. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 363).
Autograph. Re spelling of the name "Fenimore" and its provenance. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 384).
Declining to deliver the eulogy for Commodore David Porter. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 385).
Funny. Re Greenough's naked statue of Washington. The mediocrity of American public opinion. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 389).
Vituperative letter about all his literary and personal woes. The decline of his career since Notions of the Americans . This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 436).
Literary-financial. Miles Wallingford and Ned Myers . This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 440).
Social.
Afloat and Ashore conclusion ready to be announced. 3 lines only. This item is found in James Franklin Beard's Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper vol. IV, (page 480).