MY, Putnam, 1850. Published anonymously, Rural Hours, By a Lady is generally regarded as the first book of American natural history published by a woman, with Cooper now recognized as an early environmentalist, advocating for sustainability in an industrialized world. A 2001 critical study of this work characterized it as the "first major work of environmental literary nonfiction by an American woman writer, both a source and a rival of Thoreau's Walden." The book was reprinted numerous times, and both Thoreau and Charles Darwin apparently read and admired it. Later editions were illustrated with the author's own drawings, which were highly accomplished. This first edition, published in 1850, which is not illustrated, is quite scarce. Cooper was the daughter of the famous novelist James Fenimore Cooper, to whom this book was dedicated. Light dampstaining to the margins of the endpapers; otherwise a near fine copy. [#033517] SOLD