ere. The large publishing houses were
soon obliged to follow in the wake of the newspaper establishments. The
reign of the so-called "cheap and nasty" literature began. The
productions of the greatest foreign novelists were sold for a song. The
native writer was subjected to a competition which forced him at once to
lower his price or to go unread. Beginning with "Wing-and-Wing," the
rate at which Cooper's works were published furnishes a striking
commentary upon the cheap professions of sympathy with letters current
in this country, indicates suggestively the inspiriting inducements held
out by the law-making power to enter upon the career of authorship, and
shows with disgraceful clearness how utterly the interests of the men
engaged in the creation of literature had been subordinated to the (p. 263)
greed of those who traded in it. The barest recital of the facts
makes evident the nature of the encouragement given. "Wing-and-Wing" was
published at twenty-five cents a volume. So were "Wyandotte," "The
Redskins," "The Crater," "Jack Tier," "The Oak Openings," and "The Sea
Lions." The four volumes of the series "Afloat and Ashore" were
published at thirty-seven and a half cents each; and at the same rate
"Satanstoe" came out, and also "Ned Myers." It was not till Cooper's
last work appeared that the price went up as high as a dollar and
twenty-five cents. This was in one volume; but it is to be kept in mind,
in considering these prices, that in America his novels regularly
appeared in two.

One further experiment Cooper made in a new field; and with it the
record of his literary life closes. In the year 1850 he tried the stage.
On the 18th of June a comedy written by him was brought out at Burton's
Theatre, New York. It was entitled, "Upside Down; or, Philosophy in
Petticoats." For the three nights following the 18th it was acted, and
was then withdrawn. It has never been played since, nor has it been
published.

All these years he spent his time mainly in his home at Cooperstown.
There, besides the pleasure he found in the improvement of the extensive
grounds about his house, he gave full vent to that latent passion for
wasting money in agricultural operations, which seems to be one of the
most widely-extended peculiarities of the English race. On the eastern
shore of the lake, about a mile from the village, he bought a farm of
about two hundred acres which he called the "Chalet." The view from it
was exceedingly bea