Cooper's manuscript, The Chainbearer

Cooper's manuscript, The Chainbearer

AAS owns the holograph manuscript for The Chainbearer, the second in the Littlepage series, an historical and fictional treatment of the Anti-Rent War of the 1840s. Of the three Littlepage Manuscripts—Satanstoe, The Chainbearer,  and The Redskins—The Redskins is the only manuscript not owned by the Society. Cooper had already completed the manuscript, a portion of which is displayed here, by September 1845. He wrote to his British publisher Richard Bentley: "On the whole, I have determined that you shall have the three Books connected with the Littlepage Manuscripts for the £250 each, with the other conditions you name. Satanstoe you have with a credit of £50, towards 'Chainbearer,' which is the next work, now nearly stereotyped. This book is not a sequel, but a work in which the same scenes are used, and some of the old characters of Satanstoe are introduced, with the new hero, heroine and love-story."

1845

James Fenimore Cooper Papers