The Prairie. By James Fenimore Cooper. Illustrated by John Steuart Curry. Illustrated Edition. Heritage Press. Avon, 1968.

James Fenimore Cooper was one of America’s first great authors. In the early nineteenth century, he published numerous colonial romances and adventure novels that remain some of the most widely read from the period. His Leatherstocking Tales, which include The Last of the Mohicans, were particularly influential. This volume, The Prairie, was the next installment to be published and is considered the final book in the series (they were not published in order). In it, Cooper’s protagonist Natty Bumppo finds himself in the American prairies shortly after Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase. He is discovered by a family of homesteaders. Together they interact with Native American tribes and struggle to overcome the undeveloped landscape. It is one of Cooper’s best novels. It is also often considered the first Western novel, one that captures the American imagination of the West in the early 1800s.

This illustrated edition is in fine condition. In the original quarter faux-leather over pictorial boards, fine. Text block fine. In the original slipcase, fine.

A fine illustrated edition of The Prairie.