James, G. P. R. Ticonderoga: A Story of Early Life in the Mohawk Valley. New York: A. L. Burt Company, ca. 1905. [11274]
Blue publisher's cloth illustrated in black, orange, and red, light edge-wear with a few small blotches on the binding, front illustration a little scuffed, 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches. Recent owner's address sticker on the ffep, previous owner's name and date (1908) on the same. 378 clean pp.; 4 b/w plates; publisher's catalogue; lacks the final free end paper (blank). Good. Hardcover.
With four page illustrations by J. Watson Davis.
The volume has no date, but the publisher's address of 52-58 Duane St. indicates that it was published between 1900 and 1910.
George Payne Rainsford James (1799-1860), b. London, England; d. Venice, Italy. A novelist and historical writer, he served as a diplomat in the United States and in Europe. He wrote Ticonderoga and The Old Dominion while living in Virginia.
"As a contributor to newspapers and magazines, he came under the notice of Washington Irving, who encouraged him to produce his Life of Edward the Black Prince (1822). Richelieu was finished in 1825, and was well thought of by Sir Walter Scott (who apparently saw it in manuscript), but was not brought out till 1829. Perhaps Irving and Scott, from their natural amiability, were rather dangerous advisers for a writer so inclined by nature to abundant production as James. But he took up historical romance writing at a lucky moment. Scott had firmly established the popularity of the style, and James in England, like Dumas in France, reaped the reward of their master's labours as well as of their own. For thirty years the author of Richelieu continued to pour out novels of the same kind though of varying merit. His works in prose fiction, verse narrative, and history of an easy kind are said to number over a hundred, most of them being three-volume novels of the usual length. Sixty-seven are catalogued in the British Museum. " - Encyclopedia Britannica (1911).
