ABSTRACT
In an addendum to Cavaliers of Virginia, or the Recluse of Jamestown, William A. Caruthers promised readers that he would soon offer them another novel, this one focusing on the exploits of the band of Virginian adventurers who in 1716 accompanied Governor Alexander Spotswood on an expedition to the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Moreover, The Knights of the Golden Horse-Shoe was not published by the Harper Brothers, who had published Caruthers' earlier novels, but by Charles Yancey of Wetumpka, Alabama, (Davis, Introduction xxix) a house that lacked the Harpers' ability to distribute books throughout the United States. There may have been several reasons why Caruthers placed The Knights of the Golden Horse-Shoe with Yancey. The Panic of 1837 had probably forced the Harpers to reduce their list of offerings, and in a tight economy, reprints of English favorites seemed safer and more attractive to publishers than the works of American authors.
