FIRST EDITION, First State (including issue points), 2 volumes, manuscript inscription on front free endpaper (reads “John Misgrave to Alfred Mickleburgh, May 26th/74”), occasional light foxing, slight browning to endpapers, 8vo, publishers drab paper boards, rebacked with brown paper, boards lightly rubbed, Philadelphia, H.C. Carey, 1826. “The Last of the Mohicans is the most famous of the Leatherstocking Tales, and the first in which the scout Natty Bumppo was made the symbol of all that was wise, heroic and romantic in the lives and characters of the white men who made the American wilderness their home… The novel glorified for many generations of readers, in England, France, Russia, and at home, some aspects of American life that were unique to our cultural history” (Grolier American 100 34). "[Cooper's] sympathy is large, and his humor is as genuine—and as perfectly unaffected—as his art" (Joseph Conrad).