James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo. Among his most famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of the Mohicans, which many consider to be his masterpiece.
Easton Press James Fenimore Cooper books
The Spy - 1963
The Pathfinder - 1965
The Praire - 1968
The Pilot - The Collector's Library of Famous Editions - 1968
The Last of The Mohicans - 100 Greatest Books Ever Written -1979
LeatherStocking Tales - 5 volume set including:
The Deerslayer
The Last of The Mohicans
The Pathfinder
The Prairie
The Pioneers
Franklin Library James Fenimore Cooper books
The Last of The Mohicans - 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature - 1977
The Last of The Mohicans - 100 Greatest Books of All Time - 1979
The Last of The Mohicans - World's Best Loved Books - 1981
The Deerslayer - 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature - 1982
The Deerslayer - World's Best Loved Books - 1985
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James Fenimore Cooper biography
Cooper was born at Burlington, New Jersey, on the 15th of September 1789, the eleventh of William and Elizabeth Cooper's twelve children. When James was one year old, his family moved to the frontier of Otsego Lake, New York, where his father established a settlement on his yet unsettled estates which became modern-day Cooperstown, New York. His father was a judge and member of Congress. James was sent to school at Albany and at New Haven, and entered Yale College at fourteen, remaining for some time the youngest student on the rolls.
At 13, Cooper was enrolled at Yale, but he did not obtain a degree due to being expelled. His expulsion stemmed from a dangerous prank that involved him blowing up another student's door. Another less dangerous prank consisted of training a donkey to sit in a professor's chair. He obtained work as a sailor on a merchant vessel, and at 18, joined the United States Navy. He obtained the rank of midshipman before leaving in 1811.
At age 21, he married Susan DeLancey. They had seven children, five of whom lived to adulthood. The writer Paul Fenimore Cooper was a great-grandson.
He anonymously published his first book, Precaution (1820). He soon issued several others: The Spy (1821); The Pioneers (1823), the first of the Leatherstocking series featuring Natty Bumppo, the resourceful American woodsman at home with the Delaware Indians and especially their chief Chingachgook, not wholly an Indian nor a white man; and The Pilot (1824); Lionel Lincoln (1825) ; Last of the Mohicans (1826), a book that in the nineteenth century was one of the most widely read American novels. The book was written in a second-story storefront-apartment in Warrensburg, New York, just north of where most of the book's plot takes place.
In 1826 Cooper moved his family to Europe, where he sought to gain more income from his books as well as provide better education for his children. While overseas, he continued to write. His books published in Paris include The Prairie (1826) and The Red Rover (1828).
These novels were succeeded by: The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish (1829); by The Notions of a Traveling Bachelor (1828); and by The Waterwitch (1830), one of his many sea-stories. In 1830 he entered the lists as a party writer; in a series of letters to the National, a Parisian journal, he defended the United States against a string of charges brought against them by the Revue Britannique. For the rest of his life he continued skirmishing in print, sometimes for the national interest, sometimes for that of the individual, and not infrequently for both at once.
This opportunity to make a political confession of faith appears not only to have fortified him in his own convictions, but to have inspired him with the idea of elucidating them for the public through the medium of his art. His next three novels, The Bravo (1831), The Heidenmauer (1832) and The Headsman: or the Abbaye of Vigneron (1833), were expressions of Cooper's republican convictions. The Bravo depicted Venice as a place where a ruthless oligarchy lurks behind the mask of the "serene republic." All were widely read on both sides of the Atlantic, though The Bravo was a critical failure in the United States.
In 1833 Cooper returned to America and immediately published A Letter to My Countrymen, in which he gave his own version of the controversy in which he had been engaged and sharply censured his compatriots for their share in it. This attack he followed up with The Monikins (1835) and The American Democrat (1835); with several sets of notes on his travels and experiences in Europe, among which may be remarked his England (1837), in three volumes, and with Homeward Bound and Home as Found (1838), notable as containing a highly idealized portrait of himself.
All these books tended to increase the ill feeling between author and public; the Whig press was virulent and scandalous in its comments, and Cooper plunged into a series of actions for libel. Victorious in all of them, he returned to his old occupation with something of his original vigor and success. A History of the Navy of the United States (1839), supplemented (1846) by a set of Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers, was succeeded by The Pathfinder (1840), the fourth "Leatherstocking" novel; by Mercedes of Castile (1840); The Deerslayer (1841), the last in the series of books about Natty Bumppo; by The Two Admirals and by Wing and Wing (1842); by Wyandotte, The History of a Pocket Handkerchief, and Ned Myers (1843); and by Afloat and Ashore, or the Adventures of Miles Wallingford (1844).
Later life
He turned again from pure fiction to the combination of art and controversy in which he had achieved distinction, and in the two Littlepage Manuscripts (1845—1846) he wrote with a great deal of vigour. His next novel was The Crater, or Vulcan's Peak (1847), in which he attempted to introduce supernatural machinery; and this was succeeded by Oak Openings, The Two Admirals, and Jack Tier (1848), the latter a curious rifacimento of The Red Rover; by The Sea Lions (1849); and finally by The Ways of the Hour (1850), another title with a purpose, and his last completed novel.
Death
Cooper spent the last years of his life in Cooperstown, New York (named for his father). He died of dropsy on September 14, 1851, a day before his 62nd birthday. His interment was located at its Christ Episcopal Churchyard where his father William Cooper was buried.
Legacy
Cooper was certainly one of the most popular 19th century American authors. His stories have been translated into nearly all the languages of Europe and into some of those of Asia. Balzac admired him greatly, but with discrimination; Victor Hugo pronounced him greater than the great master of modern romance, and this verdict was echoed by a multitude of inferior readers, who were satisfied with no title for their favourite less than that of “the American Scott.” As a satirist and observer he is simply the “Cooper who's written six volumes to prove he's as good as a Lord” of Lowell's clever portrait; his enormous vanity and his irritability find vent in a sort of dull violence, which is exceedingly tiresome. He was most memorably criticised by Mark Twain whose vicious and amusing "The Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper" is still read widely in academic circles. It is only as a novelist that he deserves consideration. His qualities are not those of the great masters of fiction; but he had an inexhaustible imagination, some faculty for simple combination of incident, a homely tragic force which is very genuine and effective, and up to a certain point a fine narrative power.
His literary training was inadequate; his vocabulary is limited and his style awkward and pretentious; and he had a fondness for moralizing tritely and obviously, which mars his best passages. In point of conception, each of his three-and-thirty novels is either absolutely good or is possessed of a certain amount of merit; but hitches occur in all, so that every one of them is remarkable rather in its episodes than as a whole. Nothing can be more vividly told than the escape of the Yankee man-of-war through the shoals and from the English cruisers in The Pilot, but there are few things flatter in the range of fiction than the other incidents of the novel.
It is therefore with some show of reason that The Last of the Mohicans, which as a chain of brilliantly narrated episodes is certainly the least faulty in this matter of sustained excellence of execution, should be held to be the best of his works.
The Deerslayer - The Leatherstocking Tales Book 1
The
Deerslayer, or The First War-Path (1841) was James Fenimore Cooper's
last novel in his Leatherstocking Tales. Its 1740-1745 time period makes
it the first installment chronologically and in the lifetime of the
hero of the Leatherstocking tales, Natty Bumppo. The novel's setting on
Otsego Lake in central, upstate New York, is the same as that of The
Pioneers, the first of the Leatherstocking Tales to be published (1823).
The Deerslayer is considered to be the prequel to the rest of the
series. Fenimore Cooper begins his work by relating the astonishing
advance of civilization in New York State, which is the setting of four
of his five Leatherstocking Tales.
A restless white youth raised
by Indians, Natty Bumppo is called Deerslayer for the daring that sets
him apart from his peers. But he has yet to meet the test of human
conflict. In a tale of violent action and superbly sustained suspense,
the harsh realities of tribal warfare force him to kill his first foe,
then face torture at the stake. Still yet another kind of initiation
awaits him when he discovers not only the ruthlessness of "civilized"
men, but also the special danger of a woman's will. His reckless spirit
transformed into mature courage and moral certainty, the Deerslayer
emerges to face life with nobility as pure and proud as the wilderness
whose fierce beauty and freedom have claimed his heart.
The Last of The Mohicans - The Leatherstocking Tales Book 2
The
Last of the Mohicans , one of the world’s great adventure stories,
dramatizes how the birth of American culture was intertwined with that
of Native Americans. In 1757, as the English and the French war over
American territory, the frontier scout Hawkeye Natty Bumppo risks his
life to escort two sisters through hostile Huron country. Hawkeye
enlists the aid of his Mohican friends Chingachgook and Uncas, and
together they battle deception, brutality, and death in a thrilling
story of loyalty, moral courage, and love.
A historical story in
Cooper's brilliant frontier tales. It is an exciting adventure about
America's original inhabitants, our Native Americans and Hawkeye's
heroic plight and pursuit against his white brothers while battling the
evil and vengeful Huron Chief Mugua.
The wild rush of action in
this classic frontier adventure story has made The Last of the Mohicans
the most popular of James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales. Deep
in the forests of upper New York State, the brave woodsman Hawkeye
(Natty Bumppo) and his loyal Mohican friends Chingachgook and Uncas
become embroiled in the bloody battles of the French and Indian War. The
abduction of the beautiful Munro sisters by hostile savages, the
treachery of the renegade brave Magua, the ambush of innocent settlers,
and the thrilling events that lead to the final tragic confrontation
between rival war parties create an unforgettable, spine-tingling
picture of life on the frontier. And as the idyllic wilderness gives way
to the forces of civilization, the novel presents a moving portrayal of
a vanishing race and the end of its way of life in the great American
forests.
The Pathfinder - The Leatherstocking Tales Book 3
The
Pathfinder (1840), Cooper's most picturesque novel and the fourth of
the five Leatherstocking Tales, is a naval story set on the Great Lakes
of the 1750s. Fashioned from Cooper's own experience as a midshipman on
Lake Ontario in 1808-09, the novel revives Natty Bumpo (who had died in
The Prairie), and illuminates Cooper's interest in American history with
his concern for social development.
Natty Bumppo is a
40-year-old wilderness scout living near Lake Ontario during the French
and Indian War who comes to the aid of a British colonial garrison under
attack. He dearly loves Mabel Dunham, daughter of a sergeant. Mabel
refuses his offer of marriage because she loves his friend, Jasper
Western (under suspicion of being a traitor), in large part because of
his fluency in French.
The Pioneers - The Leatherstocking Tales Book 4
The
first of the five Leatherstocking Tales, The Pioneers is perhaps the
most realistic and beautiful of the series. Drawing on his own
experiences, Cooper brilliantly describes Frontier life, providing a
fascinating backdrop to the real heart of the novel the competing claims
to land
ownership of Native Americans and settlers.
In this
classic novel, James Fenimore Cooper portrays life in a new settlement
on New York's Lake Otsego in the closing years of the eighteenth
century. He describes the year's cycle: the turkey shoot at Christmas,
the tapping of maple trees, fishing for bass in the evening, the
marshalling of the militia. But Cooper is also concerned with exploring
the development of the cultural and philosophical underpinnings of the
American experience. He writes of the conflicts within the settlement
itself, focusing primarily on the contrast between the natural codes of
the hunter and woodsman Natty Bumppo and his Indian friend John Mohegan
and the more rigid structure of law needed by a more complex society.
Quite possibly America's first best-seller (more than three thousand
copies were sold within hours of publication), The Pioneers today evokes
a vibrant and authentic picture of the American pioneering experience.
The Prairie - The Leatherstocking Tales Book 5
The
Prairie: A Tale (1827) is a novel by James Fenimore Cooper, the 3rd
novel written by him featuring Natty Bumppo. His fictitious frontier
hero Bumppo is never called by his name, but is instead referred to as
"the trapper" or "the old man." Chronologically The Prairie is the 5th
& final installment of the Leatherstocking Tales, tho it was
published before The Pathfinder (1841) and The Deerslayer (1842). It
depicts Natty in the final year of his life still proving helpful to
people in distress on the American frontier. The book frequently
references characters & events from the two books previously
published in the Leatherstocking Tales as well as the two which Cooper
wouldn’t write for more than ten years. Continuity with The Last of the
Mohicans is indicated by the appearance of the grandson of Duncan &
Alice Heyward & the noble Pawnee chief Hard Heart, whose name is
English for the French nickname for the Delaware, le Coeur-dur.
Westward
The novel explores the westward expansion of the United States, as
settlers move westward and encounter new lands, peoples, and challenges.
Frontier
The novel vividly depicts the hardships and dangers of life on the
American frontier, where people must contend with harsh weather, hostile
Native American tribes, and other challenges.
Cultural The novel
depicts the clash between European American settlers and the Native
American tribes who lived on the prairie, highlighting the cultural
differences and conflicts between the two groups.
The novel is a
story of survival, as characters must navigate the challenges of life on
the frontier and overcome various obstacles in order to survive and
thrive.
The novel celebrates the beauty and power of the natural
world, with Cooper's descriptions of the prairie landscape evoking a
sense of wonder and awe.
The novel explores questions of identity and
belonging, as characters struggle to find their place in the rapidly
changing world of the American frontier.
The novel features heroic
characters who exhibit bravery, courage, and resilience in the face of
adversity, embodying the virtues of the American frontier.
The Pilot - A Tale of the Sea
Having
drawn on local knowledge and private information for The Spy and on his
own boyhood experiences for The Pioneers, it was inevitable that Cooper
would seek a way to convert yet another area of his special knowledge
into art. His first choice of career had been the U.S. Navy, in which he
served as a midshipman from 1808 to 1810.
In 1823, Cooper began
writing The Pilot, which he saw as a sea novel that seamen would
appreciate for its fidelity and yet one that landsmen could understand.
"Cooper's
poetic power is reserved for the sea, which is no backdrop but a
separate world with forces and laws of its own. The individuation of the
ships, particularly the personification of the Ariel, contributes to
the magic, but the exhilaration of the book comes from the triumph of
human skill and intelligence over the uncertainties and downright
hostilities of a world of waves, winds, and hidden reefs. The land
offers neither a comparable challenge nor so heady a victory."
The Spy
A
historical adventure reminiscent of Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley
romances, Cooper’s novel centers on Harvey Birch, a common man suspected
of being a spy for the British.
One of the first and most
notable spy novels ever written. Set at the start of the Revolutionary
War, peddler Harvey Birch becomes a spy for the American side. Because
of the top secret nature of his job, many Americans suspect Birch is
spying for the British.
While rebels and the Loyalists are on common
ground in Westchester County in New York, the appearance of neutrality
is not reflected in the hearts nor minds of those who live there.
Bibliography
1820 Precaution
1821 The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground
1823 The Pioneers: or The Sources of the Susquehanna - Leatherstocking
1823 Tales for Fifteen: or Imagination and Heart - short stories written under the pseudonym: Jane Morgan
1824 The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea
1825 Lionel Lincoln: or The Leaguer of Boston
1826 The Last of the Mohicans: A narrative of 1757 - Leatherstocking
1827 The Prairie - Leatherstocking
1828 The Red Rover: A Tale
1828 Notions of the Americans: Picked up by a Travelling Bachelor
1829 The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish: A Tale
1830 The Water-Witch: or the Skimmer of the Seas
1830 Letter to General Lafayette
1831 The Bravo: A Tale
1832 The Heidenmauer: or, The Benedictines, A Legend of the Rhine
1832 No Steamboats - short story
1833 The Headsman: The Abbaye des Vignerons
1834 A Letter to His Countrymen
1835 The Monikins
1836 The Eclipse
1836 An Execution at Sea - short story
1836 Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland
1836 Gleanings in Europe: The Rhine (Sketches of Switzerland, Part Second)
1836 A Residence in France: With an Excursion Up the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland
1837 Gleanings in Europe: France
1837 Gleanings in Europe: England
1838 Gleanings in Europe: Italy
1838 The American Democrat : or Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America
1838 The Chronicles of Cooperstown
1838 Homeward Bound: or The Chase: A Tale of the Sea
1838 Home as Found: Sequel to Homeward Bound
1839 The History of the Navy of the United States of America history US Naval history to date
1839 Old Ironsides - History of the Frigate USS Constitution
1840 The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea - Leatherstocking
1840 Mercedes of Castile: or, The Voyage to Cathay
1841 The Deerslayer: or The First Warpath - Leatherstocking
1842 The Two Admirals
1842 The Wing-and-Wing: le Le Feu-Follet
1843 Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief
1843 Richard Dale
1843 Wyandotte: or The Hutted Knoll. A Tale
1843 Ned Myers: or Life before the Mast
1844 Afloat and Ashore: or The Adventures of Miles Wallingford. A Sea Tale
1844 Miles Wallingford: Sequel to Afloat and Ashore
1844 Proceedings of the Naval Court-Martial in the Case of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, &c.
1845 Satanstoe: or The Littlepage Manuscripts, a Tale of the Colony
1845 The Chainbearer; or, The Littlepage Manuscripts
1846 The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin: Being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts
1846 Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers biography
1847 The Crater; or, Vulcan's Peak: A Tale of the Pacifi
1848 Jack Tier: or the Florida Reefs
1848 The Oak Openings: or the Bee-Hunter
1849 The Sea Lions: The Lost Sealers
1850 The Ways of the Hour
1850 Upside Down: or Philosophy in Petticoats - play
1851 The Lake Gun - short story
1851 New York: or The Towns of Manhattan
Source and additional information: James Fenimore Cooper