James Fenimore Cooper

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Cooper portrait by John Wesley Jarvis, 1822

James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is particularly remembered as a novelist, who wrote numerous sea-stories as well as the historical romances 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 people consider his masterpiece.

1 Early life
2 Literary career
- 2.1 The Leatherstocking tales
3 Last years and legacy
4 Cooper's writings
5 Modern editions of Cooper
6 External links

[edit] Early life

Cooper was born in 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 attended Yale College 1803-1805 as its youngest student, but was expelled, apparently for a dangerous prank involving blowing up another student's door as well as stealing food.[1]

Three years afterward he joined the United States Navy; but after making a voyage or two in a merchant vessel to perfect himself in seamanship, and obtaining his lieutenancy, he married Susan Augusta de Lancey (the wedding took place in Mamaroneck, New York, on May 18th, 1810) and resigned his commission (1811). He had married into one of the best families in the state.

His father William died in 1810, when James was twenty years old, but the legacy he left his son influenced his entire career. Almost one half of Cooper's novels are about populating the wilderness, in The Pioneers his father appears directly, as Judge Marmaduke Temple of Templeton.

[edit] Literary career

James Fenimore Cooper

Cooper settled in Westchester County, New York, the “Neutral Ground” of his earliest American romance, and produced anonymously (1820) his first book, Precaution, a novel of the fashionable school. This was followed (1821) by The Spy, which was very successful at the date of issue; The Pioneers (1823), the first of the Leatherstocking series; and The Pilot (1824), a bold and dashing sea-story. The next was Lionel Lincoln (1825), a feeble and unattractive work; and this was succeeded in 1826 by the famous Last of the Mohicans, a book that is considered by many to be Cooper's masterpiece. Quitting America for Europe he published in Paris The Prairie (1826), the best of his books in nearly all respects, and The Red Rover, (1828), by no means his worst.

At this period Cooper's unequal and uncertain talent would seem to have been at its best. These novels were, however, succeeded by one very inferior, The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish (1829); by The Notions of a Travelling Bachelor (1828); and by The Waterwitch (1830), one of his many sea-stories. In 1830 he entered the lists as a party writer, defending in a series of letters to the National, a Parisian journal, the United States against a string of charges brought against them by the Revue Britannique; and 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 of making 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.[2]

Photograph by
Matthew Brady c.1850

Engraving by
F.O.C. Darley

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, a burst of vanity and ill temper; 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 old vigour 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), a good “Leatherstocking” novel; by Mercedes of Castile (1840); The Deerslayer (1841); 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).

From pure fiction, however, he turned again 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 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 novel with a purpose, and his last book.

[edit] The Leatherstocking tales

The five Leatherstocking novels chronicle the life of Nathaniel "Natty" Bumppo, who lives in the frontier (which moves steadily westward with each successive novel,) at the intersection of European and Native American culture. Bumppo is a hybrid of these cultures; in each book, he has a different Native American name, and it is by these names that he is known. These books are a lucid and insightful study of the encounter between the two cultures, from the point of view of a man who manages to straddle the divide between them.

[edit] Last years and legacy

James Fenimore Cooper statue

Cooper spent the last years of his life in Cooperstown, New York (named for his father). He died of dropsy on the 14th of September 1851 and a statue was later erected in his honor.

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 "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences" is still read widely in academic circles.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

[edit] Cooper's writings

**The writings of James Fenimore Cooper**
Date	Title: Subtitle	Genre	Topic, Location, Period
1820	Precaution: A Novel	novel	England, 1813-1814
1821	The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground	novel	Westchester County, New York, 1778
1823	The Pioneers: or The Sources of the Susquehanna	novel	Leatherstocking, Otsego County, New York, 1793-1794,
1823	Tales for Fifteen: or Imagination and Heart	2 short stories	written under the pseudonym: "Jane Morgan"
1823	The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea [3]	novel	John Paul Jones, England, 1780
1825	Lionel Lincoln: or The Leaguer of Boston	novel	Battle of Bunker Hill, Boston, 1775-1781
1826	The Last of the Mohicans: A narrative of 1757	novel	Leatherstocking, French and Indian War, Lake George & Adirondacks, 1757
1827	The Prairie	novel	Leatherstocking, American Midwest, 1805
1828	The Red Rover: A Tale	novel	Newport, Rhode Island & Atlantic Ocean, pirates, 1759
1828	Notions of the Americans: Picked up by a Travelling Bachelor	non-fiction	America for European readers
1829	The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish: A Tale	novel	Western Connecticut, Puritans and Indians, 1660-1676
1830	The Water-Witch: or the Skimmer of the Seas	novel	New York, smugglers, 1713
1830	Letter to General Lafayette	politics	France vs. US, cost of government
1831	The Bravo: A Tale	novel	Venice, 18th century
1832	The Heidenmauer: or, The Benedictines, A Legend of the Rhine	novel	German Rhineland, 16th century
1832	No Steamboats	short story
1833	The Headsman: The Abbaye des Vignerons	novel	Geneva, Switzerland, & Alps, 18th century
1834	A Letter to His Countrymen	politics	Why Cooper temporarily stopped writing
1835	The Monikins	novel	Antarctica, aristocratic monkeys. 1830s
1836	The Eclipse	memoir	Solar eclipse in Cooperstown, New York 1806
1836	Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland (Sketches of Switzerland)	travel	Hiking in Switzerland, 1828
1836	Gleanings in Europe: The Rhine (Sketches of Switzerland, Part Second)	travel	Travels France, Rhineland & Switzerland, 1832
1836	A Residence in France: With an Excursion Up the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland	travel
1837	Gleanings in Europe: France	travel	Living, travelling in France, 1826-1828
1837	Gleanings in Europe: England	travel	Travels in England, 1826, 1828, 1833
1838	Gleanings in Europe: Italy	travel	Living, travelling in Italy, 1828-1830
1838	The American Democrat : or Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America	non-fiction	US society and government
1838	The Chronicles of Cooperstown	history	Local history of Cooperstown, New York
1838	Homeward Bound: or The Chase: A Tale of the Sea	novel	Atlantic Ocean & North African coast, 1835
1838	Home as Found: Sequel to Homeward Bound	novel	Eve Effingham, New York City & Otsego County, New York, 1835
1839	The History of the Navy of the United States of America	history	US Naval history to date
1839	Old Ironsides	history	History of the Frigate USS Constitution, 1st pub. 1853
1840	The Pathfinder: or the Inland Sea	novel	Leatherstocking, Western New York, 1759
1840	Mercedes of Castile: or, The Voyage to Cathay	novel	Christopher Columbus in West Indies, 1490s
1841	The Deerslayer: or The First Warpath	novel	Leatherstocking, Otsego Lake 1740-1745
1842	The Two Admirals	novel	England & English Channel, Scottish uprising, 1745
1842	The Wing-and-Wing: le Le Feu-Follet (Jack o Lantern)	novel	Italian coast, Napoleonic Wars, 1745
1843	Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief, also published as Le Mouchoir: An Autobiographical Romance The French Governess: or The Embroidered Handkerchief Die franzosischer Erzieheren: oder das gestickte Taschentuch	novelette	Social satire, France & New York, 1830s
1843	Richard Dale
1843	Wyandotté: or The Hutted Knoll. A Tale [4]	novel	Butternut Valley of Otsego County, New York, 1763-1776
1843	Ned Myers: or Life before the Mast	biography	of Cooper's shipmate
1844	Afloat and Ashore: or The Adventures of Miles Wallingford. A Sea Tale	novel	Ulster County & worldwide, 1795-1805
1844	Miles Wallingford: Sequel to Afloat and Ashore	novel	Ulster County & worldwide, 1795-1805
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	novel	New York City, Westchester County, Albany, Adirondacks, 1758
1845	The Chainbearer; or, The Littlepage Manuscripts	novel	Westchester County, Adirondacks, 1780s (next generation)
1846	The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin: Being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts	novel	Anti-rent wars, Adirondacks, 1845
1846	Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers	biography
1847	The Crater; or, Vulcan's Peak: A Tale of the Pacific (Mark's Reef)	novel	New Jersey & Pacific desert island, early 1800s
1848	Jack Tier: or the Florida Reefs a.k.a. Captain Spike: or The Islets of the Gulf	novel	Florida Keys, Mexican War, 1846
1848	The Oak Openings: or the Bee-Hunter	novel	Kalamazoo River, Michigan, War of 1812
1849	The Sea Lions: The Lost Sealers	novel	Long Island & Antarctica, 1819-1820
1850	The Ways of the Hour	novel	"Dukes County, New York," murder/courtroom mystery novel, legal corruption, women's rights, 1846
1850	Upside Down: or Philosophy in Petticoats	play	satirization of socialism
1851	The Lake Gun	short story	Seneca Lake in New York, political satire based on folklore
1851	New York: or The Towns of Manhattan	history	Unfinished, history of New York City, 1st pub. 1864

Sources for this table include:

[edit] Modern editions of Cooper

The Leatherstocking Tales, vol. 1, Blake Nevius, ed. (New York: The Library of America, 1985) ISBN 0-940450-20-8. Includes The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie.
The Leatherstocking Tales, vol. 2, Blake Nevius, ed. (New York: The Library of America, 1985) ISBN 0-940450-21-6. Includes The Pathfinder and The Deerslayer.