Until he signed a contract with the prestigious Philadelphian firm of Carey & Lea for The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper had largely overseen the printing, production and distribution of his books himself, in the hope that this would maximise profits – another trick learned from Scott. Unfortunately, the more Cooper earned the more rapaciously he was hounded by such associates as the lawyer Robert Sedgwick, a one-time friend who extracted exorbitant amounts of interest on his loans, and the unsavoury duo of Thomas Bridgen and William Holt Averell, who ended up acquiring, by various devious stratagems, much of the land and property that had made up his father’s estate. Cooper was no naif in such matters, but his situation was formidably complicated: as the youngest of four sons, he had not been personally involved in the management of the Cooper family’s holdings in the decade following the judge’s death in 1809; by 1820, however, his brothers William, Isaac and Samuel had all died prematurely, leaving James liable to a seemingly endless series of claims, as well as partially responsible for numerous nephews and nieces, not to mention his own burgeoning family. It turned out that Ann, his only surviving sibling, and her husband had decided to collaborate with Bridgen and Averell in an attempt to safeguard their own inheritance, and this led to further difficulties and losses. At times Wayne Franklin’s extraordinarily full and well-researched biography of the first half of Cooper’s life reads like a series of court proceedings, as the embattled defendant settles this suit, stoutly fends off that, takes a case to Chancery, wins an injunction, tacks and delays, but ends up watching much of his inheritance slip slowly through his fingers. And much further litigation remains for the second volume.
Yale | hardback
708 pp. |ISBN:
9780300108057
