On 1 February 1823 Charles Wiley published in New York The Pioneers, a new book by the author of The Spy; by noon he had sold 3,500 copies--a record-making sale by the bookselling standards of the time. On 26 June, almost five months later, Wiley quietly offered, as we know from a notice in The Patriot, a New York newspaper, “Tales for Fifteen, or Imagination and Heart, an original work in one volume, by Jane Morgan, price 75c.” The actual author was the author of The Spy; and the two stories, “Imagination” and “Heart,” were obviously imitations of Mrs. Amelia Opie’s popular moral tales, published, as the paper cover noted, when The Spy was in its fourth edition, The Pioneers in its third, and The Pilot in press. The sale was so small that only four copies are known to be extant. Why, one may ask, did James Cooper, who was in 1823 a writer of national and international reputation, publish this volume of imitative stories for adolescent girls, even though his identity was carefully concealed?
According to Cooper’s own account, Tales for Fifteen was written and given to Charles Wiley as a gesture of friendship to help the publisher out of financial difficulties. This explanation was echoed by the novelist’s daughter Susan in a letter reprinted from the Cooperstown Freeman’s Journal in The Critic on 12 October 1889. It is true that Wiley was having financial troubles in 1823, and Cooper undoubtedly gave him the proceeds from Tales for Fifteen; but to suppose, as full acceptance of this explanation requires, that Cooper reverted, even momentarily, to the repudiated literary models of his first book Precaution after the phenomenal success of The Spy would be to infer in him an almost total want of critical judgment and common sense. The real explanation, which Cooper might have been embarrassed to furnish and which the chronology of publication has obscured, lies in a hitherto unsuspected phase of the curious story of Cooper’s entrance to authorship.
(Continued)
What happened, evidently, was that Cooper’s interest in The Spy had revived with such force that he had gone on to complete that book and to begin The Pioneers. Wiley’s problem was then to persuade his reluctant author to complete a work in which he had lost interest but which was in press. Wiley was not successful. The three final tales, “Manner,” “Matter,” and “Manner and Matter,” were never written. Eventually the publisher prevailed on Cooper to bring “Heart,” the second of the stories, to a hurried conclusion. The author, probably happy to settle the matter, then wrote a coy Preface alluding mysteriously to “unforeseen circumstances” which had prevented the completion of the series, and gave the two stories to Wiley on the condition that their authorship be concealed. Thus The American Tales became Tales for Fifteen. A more eloquent criticism by the author could hardly be wished.
(Continued)
Cooper owned no copy of Tales for Fifteen; but the resourceful publisher found a copy in New York, and “Imagination” filled almost the whole of the front page (approximately 60 by 34-1/2 inches) of the Boston Notion on 30 January 1841. It was reprinted in what was apparently a second edition of Roberts’ Semi-Monthly Magazine for 1 and 15 February 1841 and in London in William Hazlitt’s Romanticist and Novelist’s Library. A subsequent request brought permission for the reprinting of “Heart,” which appeared in the Boston Notion for 13 and 20 March 1841 and in Roberts’ Semi-Monthly Magazine for 1 and 15 April 1841. Roberts expressed his gratitude by defending Cooper in his paper from the charge of aristocratic bias which some New York journalists had brought against Home As Found. Doubtless the publisher would have been pleased to find other American writers sufficiently democratic to provide free copy.
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According to Cooper’s own account, Tales for Fifteen was written and given to Charles Wiley as a gesture of friendship to help the publisher out of financial difficulties. This explanation was echoed by the novelist’s daughter Susan in a letter reprinted from the Cooperstown Freeman’s Journal in The Critic on 12 October 1889. It is true that Wiley was having financial troubles in 1823, and Cooper undoubtedly gave him the proceeds from Tales for Fifteen; but to suppose, as full acceptance of this explanation requires, that Cooper reverted, even momentarily, to the repudiated literary models of his first book Precaution after the phenomenal success of The Spy would be to infer in him an almost total want of critical judgment and common sense. The real explanation, which Cooper might have been embarrassed to furnish and which the chronology of publication has obscured, lies in a hitherto unsuspected phase of the curious story of Cooper’s entrance to authorship.
(Continued)
What happened, evidently, was that Cooper’s interest in The Spy had revived with such force that he had gone on to complete that book and to begin The Pioneers. Wiley’s problem was then to persuade his reluctant author to complete a work in which he had lost interest but which was in press. Wiley was not successful. The three final tales, “Manner,” “Matter,” and “Manner and Matter,” were never written. Eventually the publisher prevailed on Cooper to bring “Heart,” the second of the stories, to a hurried conclusion. The author, probably happy to settle the matter, then wrote a coy Preface alluding mysteriously to “unforeseen circumstances” which had prevented the completion of the series, and gave the two stories to Wiley on the condition that their authorship be concealed. Thus The American Tales became Tales for Fifteen. A more eloquent criticism by the author could hardly be wished.
(Continued)
Cooper owned no copy of Tales for Fifteen; but the resourceful publisher found a copy in New York, and “Imagination” filled almost the whole of the front page (approximately 60 by 34-1/2 inches) of the Boston Notion on 30 January 1841. It was reprinted in what was apparently a second edition of Roberts’ Semi-Monthly Magazine for 1 and 15 February 1841 and in London in William Hazlitt’s Romanticist and Novelist’s Library. A subsequent request brought permission for the reprinting of “Heart,” which appeared in the Boston Notion for 13 and 20 March 1841 and in Roberts’ Semi-Monthly Magazine for 1 and 15 April 1841. Roberts expressed his gratitude by defending Cooper in his paper from the charge of aristocratic bias which some New York journalists had brought against Home As Found. Doubtless the publisher would have been pleased to find other American writers sufficiently democratic to provide free copy.
Tales for Fifteen or Imagination and Heart
On 1 February 1823 Charles Wiley published in New York The Pioneers, a new book by the author of The Spy; by noon he had sold 3,500 copies--a record-making sale by the bookselling standards of the time. On 26 June, almost five months later, Wiley quietly offered, as we know from a notice in The Patriot, a New York newspaper, “Tales for Fifteen, or Imagination and Heart, an original work in one volume, by Jane Morgan, price 75c.” The actual author was the author of The Spy; and the two stories, “Imagination” and “Heart,” were obviously imitations of Mrs. Amelia Opie’s popular moral tales, published, as the paper cover noted, when The Spy was in its fourth edition, The Pioneers in its third, and The Pilot in press. The sale was so small that only four copies are known to be extant. Why, one may ask, did James Cooper, who was in 1823 a writer of national and international reputation, publish this volume of imitative stories for adolescent girls, even though his identity was carefully concealed?
According to Cooper’s own account, Tales for Fifteen was written and given to Charles Wiley as a gesture of friendship to help the publisher out of financial difficulties. This explanation was echoed by the novelist’s daughter Susan in a letter reprinted from the Cooperstown Freeman’s Journal in The Critic on 12 October 1889. It is true that Wiley was having financial troubles in 1823, and Cooper undoubtedly gave him the proceeds from Tales for Fifteen; but to suppose, as full acceptance of this explanation requires, that Cooper reverted, even momentarily, to the repudiated literary models of his first book Precaution after the phenomenal success of The Spy would be to infer in him an almost total want of critical judgment and common sense. The real explanation, which Cooper might have been embarrassed to furnish and which the chronology of publication has obscured, lies in a hitherto unsuspected phase of the curious story of Cooper’s entrance to authorship.
(Continued)
What happened, evidently, was that Cooper’s interest in The Spy had revived with such force that he had gone on to complete that book and to begin The Pioneers. Wiley’s problem was then to persuade his reluctant author to complete a work in which he had lost interest but which was in press. Wiley was not successful. The three final tales, “Manner,” “Matter,” and “Manner and Matter,” were never written. Eventually the publisher prevailed on Cooper to bring “Heart,” the second of the stories, to a hurried conclusion. The author, probably happy to settle the matter, then wrote a coy Preface alluding mysteriously to “unforeseen circumstances” which had prevented the completion of the series, and gave the two stories to Wiley on the condition that their authorship be concealed. Thus The American Tales became Tales for Fifteen. A more eloquent criticism by the author could hardly be wished.
(Continued)
Cooper owned no copy of Tales for Fifteen; but the resourceful publisher found a copy in New York, and “Imagination” filled almost the whole of the front page (approximately 60 by 34-1/2 inches) of the Boston Notion on 30 January 1841. It was reprinted in what was apparently a second edition of Roberts’ Semi-Monthly Magazine for 1 and 15 February 1841 and in London in William Hazlitt’s Romanticist and Novelist’s Library. A subsequent request brought permission for the reprinting of “Heart,” which appeared in the Boston Notion for 13 and 20 March 1841 and in Roberts’ Semi-Monthly Magazine for 1 and 15 April 1841. Roberts expressed his gratitude by defending Cooper in his paper from the charge of aristocratic bias which some New York journalists had brought against Home As Found. Doubtless the publisher would have been pleased to find other American writers sufficiently democratic to provide free copy.
According to Cooper’s own account, Tales for Fifteen was written and given to Charles Wiley as a gesture of friendship to help the publisher out of financial difficulties. This explanation was echoed by the novelist’s daughter Susan in a letter reprinted from the Cooperstown Freeman’s Journal in The Critic on 12 October 1889. It is true that Wiley was having financial troubles in 1823, and Cooper undoubtedly gave him the proceeds from Tales for Fifteen; but to suppose, as full acceptance of this explanation requires, that Cooper reverted, even momentarily, to the repudiated literary models of his first book Precaution after the phenomenal success of The Spy would be to infer in him an almost total want of critical judgment and common sense. The real explanation, which Cooper might have been embarrassed to furnish and which the chronology of publication has obscured, lies in a hitherto unsuspected phase of the curious story of Cooper’s entrance to authorship.
(Continued)
What happened, evidently, was that Cooper’s interest in The Spy had revived with such force that he had gone on to complete that book and to begin The Pioneers. Wiley’s problem was then to persuade his reluctant author to complete a work in which he had lost interest but which was in press. Wiley was not successful. The three final tales, “Manner,” “Matter,” and “Manner and Matter,” were never written. Eventually the publisher prevailed on Cooper to bring “Heart,” the second of the stories, to a hurried conclusion. The author, probably happy to settle the matter, then wrote a coy Preface alluding mysteriously to “unforeseen circumstances” which had prevented the completion of the series, and gave the two stories to Wiley on the condition that their authorship be concealed. Thus The American Tales became Tales for Fifteen. A more eloquent criticism by the author could hardly be wished.
(Continued)
Cooper owned no copy of Tales for Fifteen; but the resourceful publisher found a copy in New York, and “Imagination” filled almost the whole of the front page (approximately 60 by 34-1/2 inches) of the Boston Notion on 30 January 1841. It was reprinted in what was apparently a second edition of Roberts’ Semi-Monthly Magazine for 1 and 15 February 1841 and in London in William Hazlitt’s Romanticist and Novelist’s Library. A subsequent request brought permission for the reprinting of “Heart,” which appeared in the Boston Notion for 13 and 20 March 1841 and in Roberts’ Semi-Monthly Magazine for 1 and 15 April 1841. Roberts expressed his gratitude by defending Cooper in his paper from the charge of aristocratic bias which some New York journalists had brought against Home As Found. Doubtless the publisher would have been pleased to find other American writers sufficiently democratic to provide free copy.
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940014273794 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Denise Henry |
| Publication date: | 03/20/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 95 |
| File size: | 119 KB |
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