Gleanings in Europe: Italy First Edition - James Fenimore Cooper - Bauman Rare Books

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Gleanings in Europe: Italy

James Fenimore COOPER

Item#: 109593 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Gleanings in Europe: Italy

1838 FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF COOPER’S GLEANINGS IN EUROPE: ITALY

COOPER, James Fenimore. Gleanings in Europe: Italy. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea and Blanchard, 1838. Two volumes. Octavo, original cloth with paper labels.

First American edition of Cooper’s account of Italy and social critique of American life.

During the last half of the 1820s, Cooper "gave himself up to travel, authorship, and controversy over the relative virtues of America and Europe. His travels included brief stays in England in 1826 and 1828, a longer visit to Switzerland in 1828, temporary residences in Italy during 1828-30, an excursion to Munich and Dresden in 1830, and a return after the July revolution to Paris, where he lived until his return to New York in 1833" (DAB). Upon his return, he was "repelled by the absence of what he considered to be public and private virtue, the abuses of democracy, and the failure to perceive the best elements of the life he had conjured up in his novels" (Hart, 165). This is one of four volumes of Gleanings, published separately between 1837 and 1838, containing Cooper's pungent social criticism of American life. Published earlier the same year in London under the title Excursions in Italy. BAL 3882. Spiller & Blackburn 24.

Interior generally fine, usual toning and light wear to original cloth.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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