Byron-Curtiss, A. L. The Life and Adventures of Nat Foster, Trapper and Hunter of the Adirondacks. Utica, N.Y.: Press of Thomas J. Griffiths, 1897. First Edition. [12002]
Brown publisher's cloth, illustration of traps and a beaver skin on front, binding with slight edge-wear, joints fine, 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches. Former owner's signature in blue ink inside front cover. Illustrated with 286 clean and unmarked pp. One plate is loose and laid in and the center is a bit shaken. The list of illustrations calls for a camp scene on the title page, but this copy is not so adorned. All of the other illustrations are present. Good. Hardcover.
No. 6859 in Plum, Adirondack Bibliography.
"A faithful account of the life and adventures of a character familiar to sportsmen and others who frequent the Adirondacks...The assumption that Foster is the hero of Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales is well founded. I believe the reader will agree with me, that the character of Nat Foster as portrayed by the facts here presented, and the character of Natty Bumpo of Cooper, are wonderfully similar." - Preface.
Nathaniel Foster (1766-1840), pioneer hunter and trapper in the Adirondacks, acquitted at trial for killing a Mohawk Indian near Old Forge, N.Y. In 1787 at a tavern in St. Johnsville, clad in buckskins, he gave his name as "Leatherstockings." Foster is thought to be the model for James Fenimore Cooper's "Hawk-eye" in his Leatherstocking Tales.
Arthur Leslie Byron-Curtiss (1871-1959) was a young Episcopal clergyman in 1892, sent to the wilderness mission of Forestport, NY, in the southern Adirondacks. He became enthralled with the people and the mountains, and bought a camp at North Lake. His companionship with the people, his joining in their antics and customs, and his writing about their history, earned him the nickname "The Bishop of North Lake."
