The Indian fighter!! and Ghost of Morgan!!! : Together with a great variety of other tales;--"To amuse the odd, the comical and queer."
The Indian fighter!! and Ghost of Morgan!!! : Together with a great variety of other tales;--"To amuse the odd, the comical and queer." is a book made up of a collection of short stories and poetry from various American and British literary annuals. It was published in 1832 and claims to have been published in Mucklebrowst, Scotland, by publisher and printer Rory Blare. In the Editor's Advertisement on the first page of the book, the "Editor" of the collection states that they created this collection to be an affordable compilation of stories from various literary annuals of the day. The intended reader of this book is "the ordinary or general reader"—likely the American middle class, which was rapidly expanding as Industrialisation took deeper root in the country.
link to book in Franklin Catalog
Literary Contents
The table of contents of this collection can be found at the back of the book, labeled "CONTENTS." Various stories and poems are listed as shown in Image 2 to the left, and also transcribed below (with edits to shorten the ellipses):
The Piper of Mucklebrowst....5
The Young Provincial,....18
The Red Man,....33
Napoleon,....47
The Life of a Hero,....49
The Unfinished Monument,....60
The Ghost,....61
Midsummer Night's Reflections,....84
Greenwich Hostpial,....85
Chocorua's Curse,....98
The Bed,....105
Geneora,....109
The Village School,....114
The Indian Fighter,....118
The Omen,....135
Where is God?....141
Sonnet on Emigration,....143
Origins of Content
As this "annual" is a compilation of work from other annuals, the stories and poems included were not originally written for this book, but instead were first published elsewhere. However, the origins of the stories and poems in this annual are difficult to trace through online research. Perhaps more could be discovered about the content origins through extensive physical or digital research of American and British literary annuals.
Limited information was found online about the contents of this collection:
First, the first story in the collection, "The Piper of Mucklebrowst", was published earlier (1828) in The Bijou, a British literary annual published by William Pickering. The Bijou was a short-lived British annual that served to bring older literary works to light, meaning that "The Piper of Mucklebrowst", which takes place in Scotland, was likely written earlier than 1828 in Great Britain or Scotland.1 Second, "The Young Provincial" was possibly written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and was originally written for the 1829 edition of the American literary annual The Token, published by Samuel G. Goodrich.2 Lastly, Chocorua's Curse could be an engraving rather than a story. When examining the book, I didn't get to see the page with Chocorua's Curse on it. However, American artist Thomas Cole engraved a piece titled Chocorua's Curse in 1826, which is the only such titled piece the appears online when the title is searched. The piece can be seen in Image 3 to the right.
Physical Appearance
General
This book was created with woven paper that has browned and tattered over time and with use. It is in codex format typical of the time, without signature marks or even page numbers. The book is about 6 inches by 4 inches, and has almost 150 pages. In the absence of signature marks, we can infer that it was likely created in octavo or duodecimo format, as literary annuals tended to be constructed in those formats. The front cover has fallen off. The back cover remains, and is made of battered bluish cloth over wood. On the whole, it seems that this book may have had a liquid dripped on it, was badly kept at some point, or was overused, as some of the pages are close to falling out and there are splotch marks in various places outside and inside the book. As it contained popular stories and was cheaper than other annuals, perhaps it was very popular and thus well-loved.
When the book was added to the Dechert collection, it was encased in a hard red cover (material unknown) labeled The Indian Fighter in gold lettering on the spine. This cover likely used to be glued to the book, as there are remnants of the book's paper on the cover, which is now disconnected from the book.
(wood pulp paper, paper type and bad condition)
Markings
There was virtually no underlining, highlighting, or any other marginalia on the pages. Rare pages had signature marks, but these were few and far in between, which calls questions as to the nature of printing.
On one page, a strange marking was present, though it didn't seem to be a written mark—more like a burn, almost. Perhaps it was a signature of sorts (by the mysterious Editor), as it appeared on the last page of the last story in the book.
Historical Context
Literary Annuals
On the second folio of the book is a note by the editor, labeled “ADVERTISEMENT”, a common paratext form. In it, the editor explains that they have taken certain “Tales and Poems” from the annuals of the day, compiled them, and printed them “in a form so cheap, as to place it within the means of all”. The “Annuals” refers to American and British literary annuals.
Annuals were annual publications of stories and art published once a year. They were highly popular in American and Great Britain between 1820 and 1860. These annuals could contain short stories, art, portraits, classical references, and much more (Harris, 1). They were often lavishly bound, but moderately priced because they were directed towards the emerging middle class.3 This collection itself seems to only contain short stories of adventures (except for the Chocorua's Curse). This is likely because it was directed towards a specific (perhaps lower-middle class) audience who wanted to read the exciting stories in current annuals without having to pay for the whole luxurious package of art, stories, accounts, etc, which would be more expensive, though still reasonably priced.
Dechert Collection
This book is a part of the University of Pennsylvania's Robert Dechert collection. Thought the collection was donated by Robert Dechert, it originally belonged to Helen Godey Wilson, Dechert's mother-in-law. The Dechert collection is comprised of more than 1600 books related to American travel and Native American relations with settlers. Most are direct accounts of exploration of the Americas and even letters between early settlers in the Americas (ex, letters of Bartolomé de las Casas).4 Interestingly, this particular book is more loosely related to America as a whole, as it is a literary annual with fictional stories and poems and not a direct account of historical events. I did not get to read the story, "The Indian Fighter", but it likely is related to Native American and settler relations. This was a supposedly cheap, or at least affordable, annual, so perhaps it was bought during travel by an American.
Publishing Anomalies and Copyright Issues
Rory Blare
Rory Blare is named on the title page of the book as both publisher and printer. However, in the first story in the collection, the piper of Mucklebrowst is named exactly “Rory Blare”. The Rory Blare of this story is a fictional character. I could not find any information on a Rory Blare who published annuals or collections of stories, so it seems that either Rory was a fictional person and the “editor” did not want to reveal their name, or the true publisher somehow shared a name with this fictional character. The first seems more likely. Perhaps the editor even used the fictional name as a sort of device to make the collection seem more fantastical and intriguing. There is also the possibility that a fake name was used due to copyright worries. Since this cheaper collection is a compilation of stories from other annuals, it is possible that the other did not complete the complete copyright process and used a pen name to avoid legal retribution. At the time (early 1800s) US copyright laws protected books, prints, and other works for a term of 28 years.5 If the works were originally registered with the US District Court (the place they needed to be registered in order to be protected, as there was no Library of Congress at the time) and proper copyright notice was given, the works would not have been considered public domain and could not be arbitrarily reprinted in a collection as they are in this book. This illegal use of material might have led the editor to hide their identity. As a note, there was not copyright notice in the front of this book.
Scotland, Mucklebrowst
The title page of this book says that it was published in Mucklebrowst, and the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Catalog states that it was published in Mucklebrowst, Scotland. However, Mucklebrowst does not seem to exist outside of the story “The Piper of Mucklebrowst”. Like the publisher name, the location of publishing is also fictional, likely for one of the same reasons listed above.
References
1. Reach, Emily. “The Bijou.” University of South Carolina University Libraries, https://exhibits.library.sc.edu/literary-annuals/the-bijou/.
2. Bell, J. L. ““The Young Provincial” on Bunker Hill.” Boston 1775, 18 July 2017, https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-young-provincial-on-bunker-hill.html. Accessed 25 Apr. 2023.
3. Harris, Katherine D. Forget Me Not : The Rise of the British Literary Annual, 1823-1835 /. Ohio University Press, 2015, https://franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_9964304303503681. Accessed 25 Apr. 2023.
4. “Dechert Collection.” Penn Libraries, https://www.library.upenn.edu/detail/collection/dechert-collection. Accessed 25 Apr. 2023.
5. “Timeline 19th Century | U.S. Copyright Office.” Www.copyright.gov, https://www.copyright.gov/timeline/timeline_19th_century.html. Accessed 25 Apr. 2023.