THE KNIGHTS OF THE HORSE-SHOE; A TRADITIONARY TALE OF THE COCKED HAT GENTRY IN THE OLD DOMINION, by the author of the "Cavaliers of Virginia," &c., &c by Caruthers, William Alexander] By the author of the "Cavaliers of Virginia," &c., &c - 1845

Wetumpka, Alabama: printed and published by Charles Yancey, 1845. First edition (originally published serially in Charleston, SC, in "The Magnolia," Jan. -- Oct., 1841; the original manuscript was destroyed when the author's Savannah house burned and had to be reconstructed for the serial publication). 8vo. iv, 248 pp. Noted as "Two Volumes in One" on the front wrapper, with a separate title page for volume two, but continuous pagination and chapter numbering throughout. Hubbell "The South in American Literature, p. 497: "His best novel." BAL 2795: "Written not later than July 1838." Wright I, 495 (noted as one of 45 novels published in the South among the 2775 entries in that volume, covering 1774-1850, in the University of Virginia online catalogue description). Ellison 530 (calling for 246 pages). For a full account of the book's writing, publication, and reception, see Curtis C. Davis "Chronicler of the Cavaliers" (Richmond, 1953). Gift inscription at the head of the front wrapper: "C. B. Adams, Daily Journal / from T. H. Pease. / July 16, 1847." After studying at Yale and Amherst, Charles Baker Adams (1814-1853) became State Geologist of Vermont, Thomas H. Pease was a mid-century bookseller and publisher In New Haven, Ct. Scattered foxing, but still a very good copy. Original printed blue-green wrappers (soiled, some old insect damage at lower front corner, spine ends show a little wear). (9756). A novel of colonial Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood's service, 1710-1722. Harper had published Caruthers' earlier novels, but his loss of the original manuscript in the fire, combined with the 1837 economic crash, closed that door; after the serial publication, he looked south to Charles Yancey, brother of congressional firebrand William Lowndes Yancey, in the boomtown of Wetumpka, Alabama, "about to try very patriotically to establish a Southern Publishing House for ourselves."