Tales for Fifteen; Or, Imagination and Heart

From the opening

Tales for Fifteen: or, Imagination and Heart. by James Fenimore Cooper (writing under the pseudonym of "Jane Morgan")

{This text has been transcribed and annotated from a facsimile of the original edition (New York: C. Wiley, iv, 223 pp., 1823) by Hugh C. MacDougall, Secretary of the James Fenimore Cooper Society <jfcooper@wpe.com>, who welcomes corrections or emendations. Only a handful of copies of the original edition have survived. The standard Cooper bibliography makes brief mention of an edition published in Guernsey, Maryland (n.d.), but I have never seen any further reference to it. Forty years ago a facsimile of the Wiley edition was published (Delmar, NY: Scholar's Facsimiles and Reprints, 1959, reprinted 1977), with an introduction by James Franklin Beard. At least one microfilm version is also available, but "Tales for Fifteen" remains one of James Fenimore Cooper's least read and least known writings.}

{In 1840, when the Boston publisher George Roberts asked Cooper for a contribution to a new magazine, Cooper responded that he could reprint "Tales for Fifteen" if he could find a copy--Cooper himself didn't have one. Roberts found a copy in New York, and "Imagination" was reprinted in his "Boston Notion" (January 30, 1841), and in his "Roberts' Semi-Monthly Magazine" (Boston, February 1 and 15, 1841). Shortly thereafer, he also reprinted "Heart", in the "Boston Notion" (March 13 and 20, 1841) and in "Roberts' Semi-Monthly Magazine" (April 1 and 15, 1841).}

{George Roberts' reprint of "Imagination" was pirated in England, and included in "Imagination; A Tale for Young Women. With Other Tales by American Authors" which also included "The Block- House", by William Leggett and "The Country Cousin". (London: John Cunningham, 72 pp., 1841 [Series: The Novel Newspaper, 143]) and (London: N. Bruce, 72 pp., 1842 (Series: Standard Novels, 5]). It also appeared by itself as "Imagination: A Tale for Young Women" (London: J. Clements, 31 pp., 1841 [for the Romanticist and Novelist's Library]). There may well exist other pirated periodical versions.}

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