May 22, 2014 - Sale 2351

Sale 2351 - Lot 196

Price Realized: $ 3,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 2,000
"WHAT A SINGULAR AVERSION TO THE TRUTH THERE IS IN [THE] AMERICAN MIND" COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE. Autograph Letter Signed, "J. Fenimore Cooper," to Commodore James Barron ("Com. Barron"), sending a memoir of his brother [Samuel Barron; not present], complaining that the publisher and bookseller did not complete their work as regards his Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers, observing the American reluctance to accept facts that are not agreeable to them, and speculating that the cause of this is American self-adulation. 1 page, 8vo; short closed tear at upper edge, horizontal folds. "Globe Hotel New York," 28 January 1850

Additional Details

". . . I have never published the biographical notices for which these notes were prepared, in consequence of the publisher's declining to proceed with them. The fact is that the power of the press has been so great as to turn the public from the perusal of any thing I write, and, having lost money on the Lives he did publish the bookseller chose to stop short with the loss he had made.
"I dare say you may have discovered what a singular aversion to the truth there is in [the] American mind. I suppose it proceeds from the habit of self-adulation. It is so great, however, as to render most men reluctant to receive facts except through the medium that is most agreeable. . . ."