{by Susan Fenimore Cooper (1813-1894), daughter of James FenimoreCooper. "The Lumley Autograph" was published in Graham's Magazine,Volume 38 (January-June 1851), pp. 31-36, 97-101. The author isidentified only in the table of contents for Volume 38, p. iii, whereshe is described as "the Author of 'Rural Hours'".
{Transcribed by Hugh C. MacDougall, Secretary, James Fenimore CooperSociety; jfcooper@wpe.com. Notes by the transcriber, includingidentification of historical characters and translations of foreignexpressions, follow the paragraphs to which they refer, and areenclosed in {curly brackets}. The spelling of the original has beenreproduced as printed, with unusual spellings identified by {sic}.Because of the limitations of the the Gutenberg format, italics andaccents (used by the author for some foreign words, and in a fewquotations) have been ignored. A few missing periods and quotationmarks have been silently inserted.
{A brief introduction to "The Lumley Autograph.":
{"The Lumley Autograph" was inspired, as Susan's introductory notestates, by the constant stream of letters received by her father,asking in often importunate terms for his autograph or for pages fromhis manuscripts, and even requesting that he supply autographs of otherfamous men who might have written to him. He generally complied withthese requests courteously and to the best of his ability; after hisdeath in 1851, Susan continued to do so, as well as selling fragmentsof his manuscripts to raise money for charity during the Civil War.
{"The Lumley Autograph" is of interest today primarily because it is agood story. Its broad satire about the autograph collecting mania ofthe mid-nineteenth century is deftly combined with the more seriousirony of a poet's frantic appeal for help becoming an expensiveplaything of the rich, while the poet himself has died of want. SusanFenimore Cooper's typically understated expression of this ironyrenders it all the more poignant, and the unspoken message of "TheLumley Autograph" is as relevant today as it was in 1851.
{Though "The Lumley Autograph" was published in 1851, it was written asearly as 1845, when Susan's father first unsuccessfully offered it toGraham's Magazine, asking "at least $25" for it. [See James FenimoreCooper to Mrs. Cooper, Nov. 30, 1845, in James F. Beard, ed., "TheLetters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper" (Harvard UniversityPress, 1960-68), Vol. V, pp. 102-102]. Three years later he offered itto his London publisher, also without success [James Fenimore Cooper toRichard Bentley, Nov. 15, 1848, Vol. V, p. 390; and Richard Bentley toJames Fenimore Cooper, July 24, 1849, Vol. VI, p. 53.] What Graham'sMagazine finally paid, in 1851, is not known.}
[Not long since an American author received an application from aGerman correspondent for "a few Autographs"—the number of namesapplied for amounting to more than a hundred, and covering severalsheets of foolscap. A few years since an Englishman of literary notesent his Album to a distinguished poet in Paris for his contribution,when the volume was actually stolen from a room where every otherarticle was left untouched; showing that Autographs were more valuablein the eyes of the thie