Fanny Campbell the Female Pirate Captain.

Lieutenant Murray [Maturin Murray Ballou]; [Sylvanus Cobb]

Fanny Campbell, The Female Pirate Captain: A Tale of the Revolution. 
Octavo. Illustrtated Title page. Drab paper wrappers, with identical paper endpapers. Samuel French, New York [1845]
NY: Samuel French, 1845. Early Edition. First New York Edition of Maturin Murray Ballou's first published work, Fanny Campbell, The Female Pirate Captain: A Tale of the Revolution. Wright gives priority to the Boston edition, published by Gleason, 1845; Samuel French, this edition's publisher, is listed as a 'Wholesale Agent' for Gleason's Pictorial on the advertising leaf. Ballou was a onetime deputy navy-agent in the Boston Custom House, world traveler, and cofounder and editor of Gleason's Pictorial, one of the first American illustrated papers. He would go on to write many sentimental, naval romances; in the DNB a contemporary reviewer noted: "Mr. Ballou can tell a fairly interesting story of personal observations and experiences, but he is not a writer to pin one's faith to in matters of solid information." (DAB I, 560). An American "pioneer of pulp, Maturin M. Ballou" 's (Rennie, 162) Fanny Campbell was emphatically described by a later publisher as "the very best romantic history of the stirring incidents of our Revolutionary War" (Brady), even inspiring other American women, such as Union soldier, Sarah Emma Edmonds, towards similar feats. Title page vignette; additional title page, with the evocative illustration of Fanny Campbell; printed in two columns; advertising leaf for "Gleason's Pictorial", the early illustrated paper Ballou helped found; French's catalog at the rear. Collates complete; 100 pp. with Sylvanus Cobb's "The Tattler" at the end. Contemporary owner's name and writing in purple pencil, on the recto of the publisher's catalog, rear endpaper, and a page of text. Faint foxing, and usual toning. An Early Edition of a romantic literary symbol of the Revolution. (Wright 238. DAB I, 560. "New Books just issued by Frederic A. Brady, Publisher" (accessed from Golden Feather p. 91). Neil Rennie, Treasure Neverland: Real and Imaginary Pirates p. 162. Patricia Majher, Great Girls in Michigan History p. 41).