Cooper's manuscript, Satanstoe

Cooper's manuscript, Satanstoe

Satanstoe was Cooper's novelistic treatment of the Anti-Rent War of the 1840s. Cooper had written Satanstoe by January 1845 and wrote to Richard Bentley during that month: "'The Family of Littlepage' will form three complete Tales, each perfectly distinct from the other as regards leading characters, love story &c, but, in this wise connected. I divide the subjects into the 'Colony,' 'Revolution' and 'Republic,' carrying the same families, the same localities, and the same things generally through the three different books, but exhibiting the changes produced by time &c. In the Colony, for instance, the Littlepage of that day first visits an estate of wild land, during the operations of the year 1758, the year that succeeded the scenes of the Mohicans…. I think the Story of the Colony a very good one; the others remain to be written." Displayed here is the preface to the Colony, or Satanstoe.

1845