James Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales" (pics)

A couple of months ago I obtained a set of the "Leatherstocking Tales". I thought I would share some pictures for anyone who is curious about the contents. Each book contains a full color frontispiece and about 4 - 5 black and white illustrations.

>1 Arknight:

Thanks very sharing! Those are indeed some very beautiful books. Can you give us an idea of their dimensions? They seem like they're among the smaller EP books.

Sorry, been gone for a few days for the weekend. The books measure 8.5 inches tall and about 5.75 inches wide.

I have had all of the core works of Cooper including The Spy and The Pilot and all Leatherstocking Tales with the exception of The Pioneers. I have asked EP to overprint the Pioneers for us collectors who want to complete their set. If you are in need of The Pioneers to complete your set please contact them to overprint this book and make it available.

Just so no one gets confused - the set pictured above is different from the set currently being offered. The binding is different and so are the illustrations.

Also, "The Pilot" recently announced is different from the Library of Famous Editions copy published in 1968, which can be obtained quite inexpensively on abe.com.

>5 jroger1: thanks for clarifying. I will take this or the current green copy. I have made dozens of offers to people who refuse to break up their set. I see a mint Famous edition of the Pilot on eBay for $28 now.

Thanks for sharing the pictures. I've wanted to pick up that set, and should have bought it when it came out, but didn't for one reason or another. Now, that set is quite expensive 2nd hand. In its place, I picked up all but The Pioneers as LEC editions, many of which are quite beautifully done. LEC never published The Pioneers. EP seems to be publishing Cooper's books that were originally issued by LEC/HP or out of copyright sets. Since the LEC did not publish The Pioneers, seems EP is not going to do that either. I asked some time ago that they publish The Pioneers as a separate volume. I received a nice "thank you for your suggestion" e-mail back.

LEC also published The Spy and The Pilot. Both are excellent editions and can be found for $20 - $50 in excellent condition.

There's actually a real nice looking set here for a decent price, cheaper than buying the other set new from EP at least:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LEATHERSTOCKINGS-TALES-Pioneer-Pathfinder-Prairie-Deersl...

Just curious; has anyone actually read them all? So far, I've only done the first two and that was a few years ago.

>9 Arknight: actually I was waiting for "The Pioneers" so I could read them in the order they were published. I read the fabulous "Last of the Mohicans" then stopped hoping to get the The Pioneers which was published first. However, some scholars say the best way to read them is in alphabetical title order, since it would appear, that order corresponds to the historical order Cooper was writing about!

>8 Eastoner: is correct, that eBay listing is cheaper than the original.

>9 Arknight: I have not, the series is on my never-ending "To Read" list!

Yes, that set on e-bay is reasonable. I think these were around $60 (maybe $70)/book new, so that price is in the right range for OOP EP. I suspect the price has come down now that EP is offering the green covered set.

I have read the five books. I'd recommend reading them in alphabetical order to follow the life of Natty Bumppo. The only reason to read them in the order they were published is that The Pioneers is different from the others. It focuses much less on the character of Natty. Other characters play a much larger role in the book. Cooper must have decided to write the next novel (The Last of the Mohicans) having Natty as the main character, which was a winning plan. In the other four books, Natty is the main character, so I felt it flowed well to read the novels following his life. In fact, if you skip The Pioneers, you won't miss much in the character development of Natty.