“A little-known American novel set in the Great Lakes region during the War of 1812, Kabaosa has left a negligible amount of evidence concerning its conception, writing, printing, and ultimate publication. However, in spite of the absence of the author’s manuscript and the printer’s records, a plausible reconstruction of its publication history can be made using the extant documentary evidence as well as an examination of surviving copies of the book itself. What at first glance appeared to be a self-published run-of-the-mill historical romance of marginal literary merit was discovered to have a much more complex and interesting life story.”

 

Read the full text: “With Extreme Diffidence”: Anna L. Snelling’s Kabaosa (1842) A Provisional Publishing History and Census by Robert Beasecker

 

A description of Yale’s copy of Kabaosa in in Orbis, the Yale Library Catalog: Kabaosa by Anna L. Snelling (1842)