James Fenimore Cooper, Orig. AM from The Oak Openings: "...I took his scalp..."

Lot description

James Fenimore Cooper n.p., n.d. James Fenimore Cooper, Orig. AM from The Oak Openings: "...I took his scalp..." AM A rare autograph manuscript document by James Fenimore Cooper, namely a lengthy quotation from his Chapter XXVI of his 1848 novel, "The Oak Openings." It measures 8" x 5", [n.p., n.d.], and is finely penned on blue notepaper. Irregularly trimmed at top, otherwise in very good condition. Offered with a fine portrait engraving. In full: "Beurdon [sic], once it seemed sweet to me to take the scalps of my enemies. When an Injin did me harm, I took his scalp. This was my way. I could not help it, then. The Wicked Spirit told me to do this. The Son of the Manitou has now told me better. I have lived under a cloud. The breath of the dying medicine-priest of your people has blown away that cloud. I see clearer. I hear him telling the Manitou to do me good, though I wanted his scalp. He was answered in my heart. Then my ears opened wider, and I heard what the Good Spirit whispered. The ear in which the Bad Spirit had been talking for twenty winters shut, and was deaf. I hear him no more. I do not want to hear him again. The whisper of the Son of the Manitou is very pleasant to me. It sounds like the wren singing his sweetest song. I hope he will always whisper so. My ear shall never again be shut to his words. "Beurdon [sic], it is pleasant to me to look forward. It is not pleasant to me to look back. I see how many things I have done in one way, that ought to have been done in another way. I feel sorry, and wish it had not been so. Then I hear the Son of the Manitou asking His Father, who liveth above the clouds, to do good to the Jews who took his life. I do not think Injins are Jews. In this, my brother was wrong. It was his own notion, and it is easy for a man to think wrong. It is not so with the Son of the Manitou. He thinketh always as His Father thinketh, which is right." Cooper wrote "The Oak Openings; or The Bee Hunter" in 1848. One of last of the author's frontier novels, it centers on the adventures of a group of settlers who are trying to establish a new community in the midst of hostile Native American tribes and especially the activities of an expert beekeeper named Benjamin Boden, known as "Buzzing Ben." The novel became one of first representations of beekeeping in American literature. The protagonist's name, Benjamin Boden, comes from the French term "le bourdon," meaning "the drone." Allusions within the novel link Borden's beekeeping to that of participating in a "hive," or in this case, a settlement struggling to survive in a place where the threat of warfare and dispersion of the hive is ever-present. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) is widely recognized as America's first major novelist. Initially, Cooper modeled his works directly on or in opposition to acknowledged British novelists like Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen. Yet as he gained in confidence, Cooper began to explore aspects of the newly forged American identity, including character types, settings, and situations. He is especially known for his historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries. As a young man, Cooper served in the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, which greatly influenced many of his novels and other writings. His most famous work, and often regarded as his masterpiece, is the romantic novel "The Last of the Mohicans." This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses. WE PROVIDE IN-HOUSE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE!