Tales for Fifteen: or, Imagination and Heart.
by James Fenimore Cooper (writing under thepseudonym of "Jane Morgan")
{This text has been transcribed and annotated froma facsimile of the original edition (New York: C.Wiley, iv, 223 pp., 1823) by Hugh C. MacDougall,Secretary of the James Fenimore Cooper Society<jfcooper@wpe.com>, who welcomes corrections oremendations. Only a handful of copies of theoriginal edition have survived. The standard Cooperbibliography makes brief mention of an editionpublished in Guernsey, Maryland (n.d.), but I havenever seen any further reference to it. Forty yearsago a facsimile of the Wiley edition was published(Delmar, NY: Scholar's Facsimiles and Reprints,1959, reprinted 1977), with an introduction byJames Franklin Beard. At least one microfilmversion is also available, but "Tales for Fifteen"remains one of James Fenimore Cooper's least readand least known writings.}
{In 1840, when the Boston publisher GeorgeRoberts asked Cooper for a contribution to a newmagazine, Cooper responded that he could reprint"Tales for Fifteen" if he could find a copy—Cooperhimself didn't have one. Roberts found a copy inNew York, and "Imagination" was reprinted in his"Boston Notion" (January 30, 1841), and in his"Roberts' Semi-Monthly Magazine" (Boston,February 1 and 15, 1841). Shortly thereafer, he alsoreprinted "Heart", in the "Boston Notion" (March 13and 20, 1841) and in "Roberts' Semi-MonthlyMagazine" (April 1 and 15, 1841).}
{George Roberts' reprint of "Imagination" waspirated in England, and included in "Imagination; ATale for Young Women. With Other Tales byAmerican Authors" which also included "The Block-House", by William Leggett and "The CountryCousin". (London: John Cunningham, 72 pp., 1841[Series: The Novel Newspaper, 143]) and (London:N. Bruce, 72 pp., 1842 (Series: Standard Novels,5]). It also appeared by itself as "Imagination: ATale for Young Women" (London: J. Clements, 31pp., 1841 [for the Romanticist and Novelist'sLibrary]). There may well exist other piratedperiodical versions.}
{Introductory Note: "Tales for Fifteen" wasapparently written in 1821, when Cooper becameafflicted with writer's block while composing hisfirst best-selling novel, "The Spy". Cooper hadenvisaged a series of five stories, to be called"American Tales," and which were to dealrespectively with "Imagination", "Heart", "Matter","Manner", and "Matter and Manner". Only"Imagination" was completed; the half-written"Heart" was given a sudden and half-heartedending; Cooper later asserted that he had allowedCharles Wiley to publish "Tales for Fifteen to helphim out of some financial difficulties. In a letter toGeorge Roberts in 1840, Cooper said of"Imagination" that "this tale was written on rainyday, half asleep and half awake, but I retain rathera favorable impression of it."}
{"Imagination", remains an amusing and cleverly-plotted story of a young girl whose imaginationgets the better of her, presumably because ofreading romantic novels. This, of course, was acommonplace notion in the 1820s, except thatCooper's heroine, misled by circumstances, comesto believe that her romantic fantasies arehappening. This Don Quixote-like twist is lesscommon, though Jane Austen's famous "NorthangerAbbey" and Eaton Stannard Barrett's little-knownbut very funny "The Heroine; or, Adventures ofCherubina" (1813) fall within the genre. "Heart", aslim (indeed, truncated) account of faithful love,sinks into bathos; it is, perhaps, most interestingfor its opening scene of a blase New York Citycrowd gathering around a fallen man — and doingnothing to help him.}
{Spelling and punctuation ar