James Fenimore Cooper

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James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper by Brady.jpg
Photograph by Mathew Brady, 1850
Born (1789-09-15)September 15, 1789
Burlington, New Jersey
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Cooperstown, New York
Occupation Novelist, Historian, and US Navy sailor
Genre Historical fiction
Literary movement Romanticism
Notable works The Last of the Mohicans

Signature File:Appletons' Cooper James Fenimore signature.jpg

James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century.

His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. He lived most of his life in Cooperstown, New York, which was founded by his father William on property that he owned. Cooper was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church and, in his later years, contributed generously to it.[1] He attended Yale University for three years, where he was a member of the Linonian Society, but was expelled for misbehavior.[2]

Before embarking on his career as a writer, he served in the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, which greatly influenced many of his novels and other writings. The novel that launched his career was The Spy, a tale about counterespionage set during the Revolutionary War and published in 1821.[3] He also wrote numerous sea stories, and his best-known works are five historical novels of the frontier period known as the Leatherstocking Tales. Among naval historians, Cooper's works on the early U.S. Navy have been well received, but they were sometimes criticized by his contemporaries. Among his most famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of the Mohicans, often regarded as his masterpiece.[4]

Early life and family

James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1789 to William Cooper and Elizabeth (Fenimore) Cooper, the eleventh of 12 children, most of whom died during infancy or childhood. He was descended from James Cooper of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, who immigrated to the American colonies in 1679. James and his wife were Quakers who purchased plots of land in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Seventy-five years after his arrival in America, his great-grandson William was born on December 2, 1754.[5][6] Shortly after James' first birthday, his family moved to Cooperstown, New York, a community founded by his father on a large piece of land which he had bought for development. Later, his father was elected as a United States Congressman from Otsego County. Their town was in a central area of New York that had previously been occupied by the Iroquois of the Six Nations. The Iroquois were forced to cede their territory after British defeat in the Revolutionary War, as they had been allies.[4]

Shortly after the American Revolutionary War, the state opened up these former Iroquois lands for sale and development. Cooper's father purchased several thousand acres of land in upstate New York along the headwaters of the Susquehanna River. By 1788, William Cooper had selected and surveyed the site where Cooperstown would be established. He erected a home on the shore of Otsego lake and moved his family there in the autumn of 1790. He soon began construction of the mansion that would be known as Otsego Hall. It was completed in 1799 when James was ten.[6]

Otsego Hall, Cooper's home

At age 13, Cooper was enrolled at Yale, but he incited a dangerous prank that involved blowing up another student's door — after having already locked a donkey in a recitation room.[7] Cooper was expelled in his third year without completing his degree. Disenchanted with college, he obtained work in 1806 as a sailor and, at age 17, joined the crew of a merchant vessel.[2][8] By 1811, he obtained the rank of midshipman in the fledgling United States Navy, conferred upon him on an officer's warrant signed by Thomas Jefferson.[4][9]

At 20, Cooper inherited a fortune from his father. He married Susan Augusta de Lancey at Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York on January 1, 1811 at age 21.[10] She was the daughter of a wealthy family who remained loyal to Great Britain during the American Revolution. They had seven children, five of whom lived to adulthood. Their daughter Susan Fenimore Cooper was a writer on nature, female suffrage, and other topics. She and her father often edited each other's work.[11] Among his descendants was Paul Fenimore Cooper (1899–1970), who also became a writer.[12]

Service in the Navy

The young Cooper, in Midshipman's naval uniform

In 1806 at the age of 17, Cooper joined the crew of the merchant ship Sterling as a common sailor. At the time, the Sterling was commanded by young John Johnston from Maine. Cooper served as a common seaman before the mast. His first voyage took some 40 stormy days at sea and brought him to an English market in Cowes with a cargo of flour. There Cooper saw his first glimpses of England. The Sterling passed through the Strait of Dover and arrived at Cowes, where she dropped anchor. Britain was in the midst of war with Napoleon's France at the time, so their ship was immediately approached by a British man-of-war and was boarded by some of its crew. They seized one of the Sterling's best crew members and impressed him into the British Royal Navy.[13][14][note 1]

Their next voyage took them to the Mediterranean along the coast of Spain, including Águilas and Cabo de Gata, where they picked up cargo to be taken back to America. Their stay in Spain lasted several weeks and impressed the young sailor, the accounts of which Cooper later referred to in his Mercedes of Castile, a novel about Columbus.[16]

After serving aboard the Sterling for 11 months, Cooper joined the United States Navy on January 1, 1808, when he received his commission as a midshipman. Cooper had conducted himself well as a sailor, and his father, a former U.S. Congressman, easily secured a commission for him through his long-standing connections with politicians and naval officials.[17][18] The warrant for Cooper's commission as midshipman was signed by President Jefferson and mailed by Naval Secretary Robert Smith, reaching Cooper on February 19. Along with the warrant was a copy of naval rules and regulations, a description of the required naval uniform, along with an oath that Cooper was to sign in front of a witness and to be returned with his letter of acceptance. Cooper signed the oath and had it notarized by New York attorney William Williams, Jr., who had previously certified the Sterling's crew. After Williams had confirmed Cooper's signature, Cooper mailed the document to Washington. On February 24, he received orders to report to the naval commander at New York City.[note 2] Joining the United States Navy fulfilled an aspiration Cooper had had since his youth.[19]

Cooper's first naval assignment came in March 21, 1808 aboard the USS Vesuvius, an 82-foot bomb ketch that carried twelve guns and a thirteen-inch mortar.[20] For his next assignment, Cooper served under Lieutenant Melancthon Taylor Woolsey near Oswego on Lake Ontario, building the brig USS Oneida for service on the lake. The vessel was intended for use in a war with Great Britain which had yet to begin.[21] The vessel was completed, armed with sixteen guns, and launched in Lake Ontario in the spring of 1809. It was in this service that Cooper learned shipbuilding, shipyard duties, and frontier life. During his leisure time, Cooper would venture through the forests of New York state and explore the shores of Lake Ontario. He took frequent cruises among the Thousand Islands where he spent time fishing. His experiences in the Oswego area later inspired some of his work, including his novel The Pathfinder.[22][note 3]

After completion of the Oneida in 1809, Cooper accompanied Woolsey to Niagara Falls, and was then ordered to Lake Champlain to serve aboard a gunboat until the winter months when the lake froze over. On November 13 of the same year, he was assigned to the USS Wasp under the command of Captain James Lawrence, who was from Burlington and a personal friend of Cooper's. Aboard this ship, Cooper met his lifelong friend William Branford Shubrick, who was also a midshipman at the time. Cooper later dedicated The Pilot, The Red Rover, and other writings to Shubrick.[24][25]

Writings

First Endeavors

The Last of the Mohicans
Illustration from 1896 edition,
by J.T. Merrill

In 1820, Cooper's wife Susan wagered that he could write a book better than the one that she was reading. In response to the wager, Cooper wrote the novel Precaution (1820). Its focus on morals and manners was influenced by Jane Austen's approach to fiction. He anonymously published Precaution and it received favorable notice from the United States and England.[26] By contrast, his second novel The Spy (1821) was inspired by a tale related to him by neighbor and family friend John Jay. It was more successful and became a bestseller; the setting of this Revolutionary War tale is widely believed to have been John Jay's family home "The Locusts" in Rye, New York.[27] In 1823, Cooper published The Pioneers, the first of the Leatherstocking series. The series features Natty Bumppo, a resourceful American woodsman at home with the Delaware Indians and their chief Chingachgook. Bumppo was also the main character of Cooper's most famous novel The Last of the Mohicans (1826), written in New York City where Cooper and his family lived from 1822 to 1826. The book became one of the most widely read American novels of the 19th century.[28]

In 1823, Cooper was living in New York on Beach Street in what is now downtown's Tribeca. While there, he became a member of the Philadelphia Philosophical Society. In August of that year, his first son died.[29]

In 1824, General Lafayette arrived from France aboard the Cadmus at Castle Garden in New York City as the nation's guest. Cooper witnessed his arrival and was one of the active committee of welcome and entertainment.[30][31]

Europe

In 1826, Cooper moved his family to Europe, where he sought to gain more income from his books as well as to provide better education for his children. While overseas, he continued to write. His books published in Paris include The Red Rover and The Water Witch, two of his many sea stories. During his time in Paris, the Cooper family was seen[by whom?] as the center of the small American expatriate community. During this time, he developed friendships with painter Samuel Morse and with French general and American Revolutionary War hero Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.[32][33]

In 1832, Cooper entered the lists as a political writer in a series of letters to Le National, a Parisian journal. He defended the United States against a string of charges brought 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 frequently for both at once.[citation needed]

This opportunity to make a political confession of faith reflected the political turn that he already had taken in his fiction, having attacked European anti-republicanism in The Bravo (1831). Cooper continued this political course in The Heidenmauer (1832) and The Headsman: or the Abbaye of Vigneron (1833). 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.[34]

Back to America

In 1833, Cooper returned to the United States and published A Letter to My Countrymen in which he gave his criticism of various social mores. Promotional material from his publisher indicated that:

A Letter To My Countrymen remains Cooper's most trenchant work of social criticism. In it, he defines the role of the "man of letters" in a republic, the true conservative, the slavery of party affiliations, and the nature of the legislative branch of government. He also offers her most persuasive argument on why America should develop its own art and literary culture, ignoring the aristocratically and monarchically tainted art of Europe.[36]

Cooper sharply censured his compatriots for their share in it. He followed up with novels and several sets of notes on his travels and experiences in Europe. His Homeward Bound and Home as Found are notable for containing a highly idealized self-portrait.

In June 1834, Cooper decided to reopen his ancestral mansion Otsego Hall at Cooperstown. It had long been closed and falling into decay; he had been absent from the mansion nearly 16 years. Repairs were begun, and the house was put in order. At first, he wintered in New York City and summered in Cooperstown, but eventually he made Otsego Hall his permanent home.[37]

On May 10, 1839, Cooper published History of the Navy of the United States of America, a work that he had long planned on writing. He publicly announced his intentions to author such a historical work while abroad before departing for Europe in May 1826, during a parting speech at a dinner given in his honor:

Encouraged by your kindness, I will take this opportunity of recording the deeds and sufferings of a
class of men to which this nation owes a debt of gratitude – a class of men among whom, I am always
ready to declare, not only the earliest, but many of the happiest days of my youth have been passed.[38]

Historical and Nautical Work

His historical account of the U.S. Navy was first well received but later harshly criticized in America and abroad. It took Cooper 14 years to research and gather material for the book. His close association with the U.S. Navy and various officers, and his familiarity with naval life at sea provided him the background and connections to research and write this work. Cooper's work is said to have stood the test of time and is considered an authoritative account of the U.S. Navy during that time.[39]

Portrait by John Wesley Jarvis of Cooper in naval uniform

In 1844, Cooper's Proceedings of the naval court martial in the case of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, a commander in the navy of the United States, &c:, was first published in Graham's Magazine of 1843–44. It was a review of the court martial of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie who had hanged three crew members of the brig USS Sommers for mutiny while at sea. One of the hanged men, 19-year-old Philip Spencer, was the son of U.S. Secretary of War John C. Spencer. He was executed without court-martial along with two other sailors aboard the Somers for allegedly attempting mutiny. Prior to this affair, Cooper was in the process of giving harsh review to Mackenzie's version of the Battle of Lake Erie. Mackenzie had previously given harsh criticism to Cooper's interpretation of the Battle of Lake Erie contained in Cooper's History of the Navy of the United States, 1839. However, he still felt sympathetic to Mackenzie over his pending court martial.[40][41]

In 1846, Cooper published Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers covering the biographies of Commodores William Bainbridge, Richard Somers, John Shaw, William Shubrick, and Edward Preble.[42][43] Cooper died in 1851.[44] In May 1853, Cooper's Old Ironsides appeared in Putnam's Monthly. It was the history of the Navy ship USS Constitution and became the first posthumous publication of his writings.[45] In 1856, five years after Cooper's death, his History of the Navy of the United States of America was published. The work was an account of the U.S. Navy in the early 19th century.[39][46] Among naval historians of today, the work has come to be recognized as a general and authoritative account. However, it was criticized for accuracy on some points by other students of that period. For example, Cooper's account of the Battle of Lake Erie was said to be less than accurate by some naval historians. For making such claims, Cooper once sued Park Benjamin, Sr. for libel, a poet and editor of the Evening Signal of New York.[47]

Critical reaction

Cooper's books related to current politics, coupled with his self-promotion, increased the ill feeling between the author and the public. The Whig press was virulent in its comments about him, and Cooper filed legal actions for libel, winning all his lawsuits.

After concluding his last case in court, Cooper returned to writing with more energy and success than he'd had for several years. On May 10, 1839, he published his History of the U.S. Navy,[39] and returned to the Leatherstocking Tales series with The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea (1840) and The Deerslayer (1841) and other novels. He wrote again on maritime themes, including Ned Myers, or A Life Before the Mast, which is of particular interest to naval historians.

In the late 1840s, Cooper returned to his public attacks on his critics and enemies in a series of novels called the Littlepage Trilogy where he defended landowners along the Hudson River, lending them social and political support against rebellious tenant farmers in the anti-rent wars that marked this period. One of his later novels was The Crater, an allegory of the rise and fall of the United States, authored in 1848. His growing sense of historical doom was exemplified in this work. At the end of his career, he wrote a scornful satire about American social life and legal practices called The Ways of the Hour, authored in 1850.[citation needed]

Later life

He turned again from pure fiction to the combination of art and controversy in which he had achieved distinction with the Littlepage Manuscripts (1845–1846). His next novel was The Crater, or Vulcan's Peak (1847), in which he attempted to introduce supernatural machinery. Jack Tier (1848) was a remaking of The Red Rover, and The Ways of the Hour was his last completed novel.[48]

Cooper spent the last years of his life back in Cooperstown. He died on September 14, 1851, the day before 62nd birthday. His interment was in Christ Episcopal Churchyard, where his father, William Cooper, was buried. Cooper's wife Susan survived her husband only by a few months and was buried by his side at Cooperstown.

Several well-known writers, politicians, and other public figures honored Cooper's memory with a dinner in New York, six months after his death, in February 1852. Daniel Webster presided over the event and gave a speech to the gathering while Washington Irving served as a co-chairman, along with William Cullen Bryant, who also gave an address which did much to restore Cooper's damaged reputation among American writers of the time.[49][50]

Religious activities

Beginning in his youth Cooper was a devoted follower of the Episcopal Church where his religious convictions deepened throughout his life. He was an active member of Christ Episcopal Church, which at the time was a small parish in Cooperstown not far from his home. Much later in his life, in 1834, he became its warden and vestryman. As the vestryman, he donated generously to this church and later supervised and redesigned its interior with oak furnishings at his own expense. In July 1851 he was confirmed in this church by the Reverend Mr. Birdsall.[51][52][53]

Legacy

Cooper was one of the most popular 19th-century American authors, and his work was admired greatly throughout the world. While on his death bed, the Austrian composer Franz Schubert wanted most to read more of Cooper's novels.[54] Honoré de Balzac, the French novelist and playwright, admired him greatly.[55] Henry David Thoreau, while attending Harvard, incorporated some of Cooper's style in his own work.[56] Cooper's work, particularly The Pioneers and The Pilot, demonstrate an early 19th-century American preoccupation with alternating prudence and negligence in a country where property rights were often still in dispute.[57]

Cooper was one of the first major American novelists to include African, African-American and Native American characters in his works. In particular, Native Americans play central roles in his Leatherstocking tales. However, his treatment of this group is complex and highlights the tenuous relationship between frontier settlers and American Indians as exemplified in The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, depicting a captured white girl who is taken care of by an Indian chief and who after several years is eventually returned to her parents.[58] Often, he gives contrasting views of Native characters to emphasize their potential for good, or conversely, their proclivity for mayhem. Last of the Mohicans includes both the character of Magua, who is devoid of almost any redeeming qualities, as well as Chingachgook, the last chief of the Mohicans, who is portrayed as noble, courageous, and heroic.[59] In 1831, Cooper was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary Academician.

According to Tad Szulc, Cooper was a devotee of Poland's causes (uprisings to regain Polish sovereignty). He brought flags of the defeated Polish rebel regiment from Warsaw and presented them to the exiled leaders in Paris. And although Cooper and Marquis de La Fayette were friends, it remains unclear how Cooper found himself in Warsaw at that historical moment, although he was an active supporter of European democratic movements.[60]

Though some scholars have hesitated to classify Cooper as a strict Romantic, Victor Hugo pronounced him greater than the great master[who?] of modern romance.[55][not in citation given] This verdict was echoed by a multitude of less famous readers, such as Balzac and Rudolf Drescher of Germany, who were satisfied with no title for their favorite less than that of the "American Scott."[61] Mark Twain famously criticized The Deerslayer and The Pathfinder in his satirical but shrewdly observant essay, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" (1895),[62] which portrays Cooper's writing as cliched and overwrought. Cooper was honored on a U.S. commemorative stamp, the Famous American series, issued in 1940.

Cooper was honored on a U.S. commemorative stamp, the Famous American series, issued in 1940

Cooper was also criticized heavily for his depiction of women characters in his work. James Russell Lowell, Cooper's contemporary and a critic, referred to it poetically in A Fable for Critics, writing, ". . . the women he draws from one model don't vary / All sappy as maples and flat as a prairie."[63]

Cooper's lasting reputation today rests largely upon the five Leatherstocking tales. As for the remaining body of his work, literary scholar Leslie Fiedler notes that Cooper's "collected works are monumental in their cumulative dullness."[64]

Three dining halls at the State University of New York at Oswego are named in Cooper's remembrance (Cooper Hall, The Pathfinder, and Littlepage) because of his temporary residence in Oswego and for setting some of his works there.[65] The gilded and red tole chandelier hanging in the library of the White House in Washington DC is from the family of James Fenimore Cooper.[66] It was brought there through the efforts of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in her great White House restoration. The James Fenimore Cooper Memorial Prize at New York University is awarded annually to an outstanding undergraduate student of journalism.[67]

In 2013, Cooper was inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame.

Cooper's novels were very popular in the rest of the world, including, for instance, Russia. In particular, great interest of the Russian public in Cooper's work was primarily incited by the novel The Pathfinder, which the renowned Russian literary critic Vissarion Belinsky declared to be "a Shakespearean drama in the form of a novel".[68] The author was more recognizable by his exotic to many in Russia middle name Fenimore, and this name specifically became a symbol of exciting adventures. For example, in the 1977 Soviet movie The Secret of Fenimore (Russian: Тайна Фенимора), being the third part of a children's television mini-series Three Cheerful Shifts (Russian: Три весёлые смены, see Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). Tri vesyolye smeny (1977) at IMDb), tells of a mysterious stranger known as Fenimore, visiting a boys' dorm in a summer camp nightly and relating fascinating stories about Indians and extraterrestrials.

Works

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Works by James Fenimore Cooper
Date Title: Subtitle Genre Topic, Location, Period
1820 Precaution[69] novel England, 1813–1814
1821 The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground[70] novel Westchester County, New York, 1780
1823 The Pioneers: or The Sources of the Susquehanna[71] novel Leatherstocking, Otsego County, New York, 1793–1794,
1823 Tales for Fifteen: or Imagination and Heart[72] 2 short stories written under the pseudonym: Jane Morgan
1824 The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea[73] 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 [74] novel Leatherstocking, French and Indian War, Lake George & Adirondacks, 1757
1827 The Prairie[75] novel Leatherstocking, American Midwest, 1805
1828 The Red Rover: A Tale[76] 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 [77] novel Western Connecticut, Puritans and Indians, 1660–1676
1830 The Water-Witch: or the Skimmer of the Seas [78] novel New York, smugglers, 1713
1830 Letter to General Lafayette politics France vs. US, cost of government
1831 The Bravo: A Tale[79] 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[80] novel Geneva, Switzerland, & Alps, 18th century
1834 A Letter to His Countrymen politics Why Cooper temporarily stopped writing
1835 The Monikins[81] novel Antarctica, aristocratic monkeys, 1830s; a satire on British and American politics.
1836 The Eclipse[82] memoir Solar eclipse in Cooperstown, New York 1806
1836 An Execution at Sea [83] short story execution of a murderer on a ship
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[84] 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[85] novel Atlantic Ocean & North African coast, 1835
1838 Home as Found: Sequel to Homeward Bound[86] 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[87] history History of the Frigate USS Constitution, 1st pub. 1853
1840 The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea' [88] 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 [89] (Jack o Lantern) novel Italian coast, Neapolitan Wars, 1745
1843 Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief,[90] 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 Wyandotte: or The Hutted Knoll. A Tale[91] novel Butternut Valley of Otsego County, New York, 1763–1776
1843 Ned Myers: or Life before the Mast[92] biography of Cooper's shipmate who survived an 1813 sinking of a US sloop of war in a storm
1844 Afloat and Ashore: or The Adventures of Miles Wallingford. A Sea Tale[93] novel Ulster County & worldwide, 1795–1805
1844 Miles Wallingford: Sequel to Afloat and Ashore[94]
British title: Lucy Hardinge: A Second Series of Afloat and Ashore (1844)[95]
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[96] 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[97] (Mark's Reef) novel Philadelphia, Bristol (PA), & deserted Pacific island, early 19th century
1848 Jack Tier: or the Florida Reefs[98]
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[99] novel Kalamazoo River, Michigan, War of 1812
1849 The Sea Lions: The Lost Sealers[100] 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 [101] short story Seneca Lake in New York, political satire based on folklore
1851 New York: or The Towns of Manhattan [102] history Unfinished, history of New York City, 1st pub. 1864

Notes

  1. At this time, the British naval practice was common of seizing American sailors, accusing them of desertion, and impressing them into the British navy. It is largely what led to the War of 1812.[15]
  2. Accounts vary: Phillips, 1913, p. 53 puts the date at January 12.[17]
  3. Records of the government or Department of Navy provide little information regarding Cooper's movements and activities in the Navy. Knowledge of Cooper's life comes primarily from what he divulged in his published works, notes, and letters of that period.[23]

References

  1. Phillips, 1913, pp. 6–7
  2. 2.0 2.1 Lounsbury, 1883, pp. 7–8
  3. Clary, Suzanne, "James Fenimore Copper and Spies in Rye", My Rye, 2010
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Hale, 1896, p. 657
  5. Phillips, 1913, p. 2
  6. 6.0 6.1 Lounsbury, 1883, p. 2
  7. McCullough p. 70
  8. J.F. Cooper Biography
  9. Franklin, 2007, p.101
  10. Clymer, 1900, p. xii
  11. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. Wright, 1983,
    Cooper Genealogy, NYS Historical Association
  13. Clymer, 1900, p. xi
  14. Phillips, 1913, pp. 43–44
  15. Roosevelt, 1883 pp. 1–3
  16. Franklin, 2007, p. 89
  17. 17.0 17.1 Phillips, 1913, p. 53
  18. Lounsbury, 1883, p. 216
  19. Franklin, 2007, pp. 101–102
  20. Franklin, 2007, pp. 110–111
  21. Clymer, 1900, p.12
  22. Phillips, 1913, pp. 54–55
  23. Lounsbury, 1883, p.11
  24. Phillips, 1913, p. 216
  25. Lounsbury, 1883, p.12
  26. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. Hicks, Paul,"The Spymaster and the Author," The Rye Record, December 7, 2014. http://ryerecord.com/a-little-rye-history/a-little-local-history-the-spymaster-and-the-author.html
  28. Last of the Mohicans. In: Martin J. Manning (ed.), Clarence R. Wyatt (ed.): Encyclopedia of Media and Propaganda in Wartime America. Volume I.. ABC-CLIO, 2011, ISBN 9781598842289, pp. 75–76
  29. Phillips, 1913, p.99
  30. Phillips, 1913, p.114
  31. Franklin, 2007, p. 314
  32. Phillips, 1913, p. 239
  33. McCullough, 2011
  34. James Fenimore Cooper, The Bravo, Oneonta University.
  35. Phillips, 1913, p. 272
  36. JF Cooper. The American Democrat and Other Political Writings, Edited by John Willson, Regency Publishing.
  37. Clymer, 1900, pp. xi–xv
  38. Lounsbury, 1883, p. 200
  39. 39.0 39.1 39.2 Phillips, 1913, p. 277
  40. Phillips, 1913, pp. 305–306
  41. Clymer, 1900, pp. 110–111
  42. Cooper, 1846, 436 pages
  43. Phillips, 1913, p. 308
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  46. Cooper, 1856 508 pages
  47. Clymer, 1900, p.94, 107
  48. Book of James Fenimore Cooper. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
  49. Jones, Brian Jay. Washington Irving: An American Original. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2008: 391. ISBN 978-1-55970-836-4.
  50. Hale, 1896, p. 658
  51. Lounsbury, 1883, p. 23
  52. Phillips, 1913, pp. 340–341
  53. See Fowler, 'Modern English Usage,' Mencken 'The American Language.' 'Crockford's Clerical Directory,' or 1969 ed. 'American Heritage Dictionary' for the correct use of the adjective "reverend." It is to be used exactly as the adjective "honorable" is used. One would not call Judge John Smith "the Honorable Smith."
  54. Letter from Schubert to Franz von Schober, November 12, 1828
  55. 55.0 55.1 Phillips, 1913, p. 350
  56. Franklin, 2007, p. xxix
  57. Nan Goodman, Shifting the Blame: Literature, Law, and the Theory of Accidents in Nineteenth-Century America. Princeton UP 1998
  58. Phillips, 1913, pp. 189–190
  59. Clymer, 1900, pp. 43–44
  60. Szulc, 1998, p. 86
  61. Phillips, 1913, p. 160
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  63. Porte, Joel. The Romance in America: Studies in Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and James. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1969: 20.
  64. Fiedler, Leslie. Love and Death in the American Novel. Dalkey Archive Press, 2008 (reprint): 180. ISBN 978-1-56478-163-5
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  67. [1] Archived June 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
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Bibliography

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Primary sources

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  • ——— (1852). The Chainbearer, Or The Littlepage Manuscripts, Stringer and Townsend, 228 pages; eBook

Further reading

  • Clavel, Marcel (1938). Fenimore Cooper and his critics: American, British and French criticisms of the novelist's early work, Imprimerie universitaire de Provence, E. Fourcine.
  • Darnell, Donald. (1993). James Fenimore Cooper: Novelist of Manners, Newark, Univ. of Delaware
  • Doolen, Andy (2005). Fugitive Empire: Locating Early American Imperialism, Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota P,
  • Franklin, Wayne (1982). The New World of James Fenimore Cooper, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago P, Book
  • -- (2007). James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years, New Haven: Yale UP, Book
  • Krauthammer, Anna. The Representation of the Savage in James Fenimore Cooper and Herman Melville. NY: Peter Lang, 2008.
  • Long, Robert Emmet( 1990). James Fenimore Cooper, NY: Continuum, PS 1431 .L57
  • MacDougall, Hugh C. Where Was James? A James Fenimore Cooper Chronology from 1789–1851. Cooperstown: James Fenimore Cooper Soc., 1993.
  • Rans, Geoffrey. Cooper's Leather-Stocking Novels: A Secular Reading. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina, 1991.
  • Redekop, Ernest H., ed. (1989). James Fenimore Cooper, 1789–1989: Bicentennial Essays, Canadian Review of American Studies, entire special issue, vol. 20, no. 3 (Winter 1989), pp. [1]–164. ISSN 0007-7720
  • Reid, Margaret. Cultural Secrets as Narrative Form: Storytelling in Nineteenth-Century America. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2004.
  • Ringe, Donald A. (1988). James Fenimore Cooper, Boston: Twayne, PS1438 .R5
  • Romero, Lora. Home Fronts: Domesticity and Its Critics in the Antebellum United States. Durham: Duke UP, 1997.
  • Smith, Lindsey C. (2008). Indians, Environment, and Identity on the Borders of American Literature: From Faulkner and Morrison to Walker and Silko, NY: Palgrave Macmillan,
  • Verhoeven, W. M. (1993). James Fenimore Cooper: New Historical and Literary Contexts, Rodopi publishers, 217 pages; ISBN 9789051833607; Book

External links