of other famous men who might have written to him. He generally
complied with these requests courteously and to the best of his
ability; after his death in 1851, Susan continued to do so, as well as
selling fragments of his manuscripts to raise money for charity during
the Civil War.

{"The Lumley Autograph" is of interest today primarily because it is a
good story. Its broad satire about the autograph collecting mania of
the mid-nineteenth century is deftly combined with the more serious
irony of a poet's frantic appeal for help becoming an expensive
plaything of the rich, while the poet himself has died of want. Susan
Fenimore Cooper's typically understated expression of this irony
renders it all the more poignant, and the unspoken message of "The
Lumley Autograph" is as relevant today as it was in 1851.

{Though "The Lumley Autograph" was published in 1851, it was
written as early as 1845, when Susan's father first unsuccessfully
offered it to Graham's Magazine, asking "at least $25" for it. [See
James Fenimore Cooper to Mrs. Cooper, Nov. 30, 1845, in James F.
Beard, ed., "The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper"
(Harvard University Press, 1960-68), Vol. V, pp. 102-102]. Three
years later he offered it to his London publisher, also without
success [James Fenimore Cooper to Richard Bentley, Nov. 15, 1848,
Vol. V, p. 390; and Richard Bentley to James Fenimore Cooper, July
24, 1849, Vol. VI, p. 53.] What Graham's Magazine finally paid, in
1851, is not known.}