The Lumley Autograph | Page 3

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THE LUMLEY AUTOGRAPH

by Susan Fenimore Cooper

{by Susan Fenimore Cooper (1813-1894), daughter of James Fenimore
Cooper. "The Lumley Autograph" was published in Graham's
Magazine, Volume 38 (January-June 1851), pp. 31-36, 97-101. The
author is identified only in the table of contents for Volume 38, p. iii,
where she is described as "the Author of 'Rural Hours'".
{Transcribed by Hugh C. MacDougall, Secretary, James Fenimore
Cooper Society; [email protected]. Notes by the transcriber,
including identification of historical characters and translations of
foreign expressions, follow the paragraphs to which they refer, and are
enclosed in {curly brackets}. The spelling of the original has been
reproduced as printed, with unusual spellings identified by {sic}.
Because of the limitations of the the Gutenberg format, italics and
accents (used by the author for some foreign words, and in a few
quotations) have been ignored. A few missing periods and quotation
marks have been silently inserted.
{A brief introduction to "The Lumley Autograph.":
{"The Lumley Autograph" was inspired, as Susan's introductory note
states, by the constant stream of letters received by her father, asking in
often importunate terms for his autograph or for pages from his
manuscripts, and even requesting that he supply autographs of other
famous men who might have written to him. He generally complied
with these requests courteously and to the best of his ability; after his
death in 1851, Susan continued to do so, as well as selling fragments of
his manuscripts to raise money for charity during the Civil War.
{"The Lumley Autograph" is of interest today primarily because it is a
good story. Its broad satire about the autograph collecting mania of the
mid-nineteenth century is deftly combined with the more serious irony
of a poet's frantic appeal for help becoming an expensive plaything of
the rich, while the poet himself has died of want. Susan Fenimore
Cooper's typically understated expression of this irony renders it all the
more poignant, and the unspoken message of "The Lumley Autograph"
is as relevant today as it was in 1851.
{Though "The Lumley Autograph" was published in 1851, it was
written as early as 1845, when Susan's father first unsuccessfully
offered it to Graham's Magazine, asking "at least $25" for it. [See

James Fenimore Cooper to Mrs. Cooper, Nov. 30, 1845, in James F.
Beard, ed., "The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper"
(Harvard University Press, 1960-68), Vol. V, pp. 102-102]. Three years
later he offered it to his London publisher, also without success [James
Fenimore Cooper to Richard Bentley, Nov. 15, 1848, Vol. V, p. 390;
and Richard Bentley to James Fenimore Cooper, July 24, 1849, Vol. VI,
p. 53.] What Graham's Magazine finally paid, in 1851, is not known.}

THE LUMLEY AUTOGRAPH.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "RURAL HOURS," ETC.

[Not long since an American author received an application from a
German correspondent for "a few Autographs"--the number of names
applied for amounting to more than a hundred, and