Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A POCKET-HANDKERCHIEF
by James Fenimore Cooper

{This text has been transcribed, corrected, and annotated from its
original periodical appearance in Graham's Magazine (Jan.-Apr. 1843),
by Hugh C. MacDougall, Secretary of the James Fenimore Cooper
Society (jfcooper@wpe.com), who welcomes corrections or
emendations.}

{Introductory Note: "Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief" was
James Fenimore Cooper's first serious attempt at magazine writing, and
Graham's Magazine would publish other contributions from him over the
next few years, notably a series of biographic sketches of American
naval officers, and the novel "Jack Tier; or The Florida Reef" (1846-
1848). Though hardly one of Cooper's greatest works,
"Autobiography" remains significant because of: (1) its unusual narrator
-- an embroidered pocket-handkerchief -- that is surely the first of its
kind; (2) its critique of economic exploitation in France and of the crass
commercial climate of ante-bellum America; and, (3) its constant
exploration of American social, moral, and cultural issues. This said, it
must be admitted that the telling of Adrienne's sad plight in Paris
becomes a bit overwrought; and that the inept wooing of Mary Monson
by the social cad Tom Thurston is so drawn out and sarcastic as to
suggest snobbery on Cooper's part as well as on that of his elite hanky.
Finally, the heroine-handkerchief's protracted failure to recognize her
maker, when she has proved so sensitive to her surroundings in every
other fashion, is simply unbelievable. Still, there is enough to reward
today's reader, if only in the story's unique "point of view" and in the
recognizable foibles of Henry Halfacre and his social-climbing
daughter.}

{The text is taken from the novelette's original appearance in Graham's
Magazine, Vol. XXII, pp. 1-18, 89-102, 158-167, 205-213 (January-
April) 1843. "Autobiography" was simultaneously issued as a separate
number of Brother Jonathan magazine (March 22, 1843), under the title
"Le Mouchoir: An Autobiographical Romance." Also in 1843 it was
published in London by Richard Bentley as "The French Governess; or,
the Embroidered Handkerchief." A German translation quickly
followed, as "Die franzosischer Erzieheren, oder das gestickte
Taschentuch" (Stuttgart: Lieschning, 1845, reprinted 1849). Interest in
the book then lapsed. The Brother Jonathan and Bentley editions
divided the story into 18 chapters (as we have in this transcription).}

{At the end of the century a limited scholarly edition (500 copies)
appeared, edited by Walter Lee Brown, the first scholary treatment of
any Cooper work, noting variations between the original manuscript and
the various published texts: "Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief"
(Evanston, IL: The Golden-Booke Press, 1897). Another edition,
unannotated and taken from the Graham's Magazine version, was
printed half a century later as a Festschrift (farewell testimonial) for
retiring Cooper scholar Gregory Lansing Paine of the University of
North Carolina: "Autobiography of A Pocket-Handkerchief" (Chapel
Hill: Privately printed, 1949). "Autobiography" was never included in
published collections of James Fenimore Cooper's "Works," and this
scarcity is an important reason for making it available to scholars