The Lumley Autograph

"The Lumley Autograph" by Susan Fenimore Cooper is a satirical work concerning the autograph-collecting mania of the mid-nineteenth century. Cooper was an American writer and amateur who enjoyed observing people and the world around her. The book follows the adventures of its main characters as they go on the hunt for the autographs they need to supposedly «complete» their collections. Its broad satire is deftly combined with the more serious irony of a poet's frantic appeal for help becoming an expensive plaything of the rich, while the poet himself has died of want.