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James Fenimore Cooper
Photograph by Mathew Brady, 1850
Photograph by Mathew Brady, 1850
Born (1789-09-15)September 15, 1789
Burlington, New Jersey
Died September 14, 1851(1851-09-14) (aged 61)
Cooperstown, New York
Occupation Author
Genre Historical fiction
Literary movement Romanticism
Notable works The Last of the Mohicans
Military career
Allegiance  United States
Branch United States Navy
Years of service 1808–1810
Rank Midshipman

James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer. His historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought him fame and fortune.

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, half of whom died during infancy or childhood.

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 to the United States Congress as a representative from Otsego County.

Appletons' Cooper James Fenimore Otsego Hall
Otsego Hall, Cooper's home

Cooper was enrolled at Yale University at age 13, but was expelled in his third year without completing his degree, so he obtained work in 1806 as a sailor and joined the crew of a merchant vessel at age 17. By 1811, he obtained the rank of midshipman in the fledgling United States Navy, conferred upon him by an officer's warrant signed by Thomas Jefferson.

James Fenimore Cooper
The young Cooper, in Midshipman's naval uniform

William Cooper had died more than a year before, in 1809, when James was 20. All five of his sons inherited a supposed-large fortune in money, securities, and land titles, which soon proved to be a wealth of endless litigation. He married Susan Augusta de Lancey at Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York on January 1, 1811, at age 21. She was from a wealthy family who remained loyal to Great Britain during the Revolution. The Coopers had seven children, five of whom lived to adulthood. Their daughter Susan Fenimore Cooper was a writer on nature, female suffrage, and other topics. Her father edited her works and secured publishers for them. One son, Paul Fenimore Cooper, became a lawyer and perpetuated the author's lineage to the present.

Writings

First endeavors

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

In 1820, when reading a contemporary novel to his wife Susan, he decided to try his hand at fiction, resulting in a neophyte novel set in England he called Precaution (1820). Its focus on morals and manners was influenced by Jane Austen's approach to fiction. Precaution was published anonymously and received modestly favorable notice in the United States and England. By contrast, his second novel The Spy (1821) was inspired by an American tale related to him by neighbor and family friend John Jay. It became the first novel written by an American to become a bestseller at home and abroad, requiring several re-printings to satisfy demand.

Following on a swell of popularity, Cooper published The Pioneers, the first of the Leatherstocking series in 1823. The series features the inter-racial friendship of Natty Bumppo, a resourceful American woodsman who is 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 more widely read American novels of the 19th century. At this time, Cooper had been living in New York on Beach Street in what is now downtown's Tribeca.

In 1823, he became a member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. In August of that same year, his first son died. He organized the influential Bread and Cheese Club that brought together American writers, editors, artists, scholars, educators, art patrons, merchants, lawyers, politicians, and others.

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.

Europe

In 1826, Cooper moved his family to Europe, where he sought to gain more income from his books, provide better education for his children, improve his health, and observe European manners and politics firsthand. While overseas, he continued to write. His books published in Paris include The Prairie, the third Leather-Stocking Tale in which Natty Bumppo dies in the western land newly acquired by Jefferson as the Louisiana Purchase. There he also published The Red Rover and The Water Witch, two of his many sea stories.

Back to America

Cooper's St. Mark's Place Home, NYC
Cooper's townhouse at 6 St. Mark's Place in the East Village, Manhattan

In 1833, Cooper returned to the United States and published "A Letter to My Countrymen" in which he gave his criticism of various social and political mores.

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.

Historical and nautical work

James Fenimore Cooper by Jarvis
Portrait by John Wesley Jarvis of Cooper in naval uniform

Cooper's historical account of the U.S. Navy was well received, though his account of the roles played by the American leaders in the Battle of Lake Erie led to years of disputes with their descendants.

In 1846, Cooper published Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers covering the biographies of William Bainbridge, Richard Somers, John Shaw, John Templar Shubrick, and Edward Preble. Cooper died in 1851. In May 1853, Cooper's Old Ironsides appeared in Putnam's Monthly. It was the history of the Navy ship USS Constitution and, after European and American Scenery Compared, 1852, was one of several posthumous publications of his writings. In 1856, five years after Cooper's death, his History of the Navy of the United States of America was re-published in an expanded edition. The work was an account of the U.S. Navy in the early 19th century, through the Mexican War. Among naval historians of today, the work has come to be recognized as a general and authoritative account.

Later life

Faced with competition from younger writers and magazine serialization, and lower prices for books resulting from new technologies, Cooper simply wrote more in his last decade than in either of the previous two. Half of his thirty-two novels were written in the 1840s. They may be grouped into three categories: Indian romances, maritime fiction, and political and social controversy—though the categories often overlap.

The 1840s began with the last two novels featuring Natty Bumppo, both critical and reader successes: The Pathfinder (1840) and The Deerslayer (1841). Wyandotte, his last novel set in the Revolutionary War, followed in 1843 and Oak Openings in 1848. The nautical works were Mercedes of Castile (in which Columbus appears, 1840),The Two Admirals (British and French fleets in battle, 1842), Wing-And-Wing (a French privateer fighting the British in 1799, 1842), Afloat and Ashore (two volumes exploring a young man growing up, 1844), Jack Tier (a vicious smuggler in the Mexican-American War, 1848), and The Sea Lions (rival sealers in the Antarctic, 1849).

He also turned from pure fiction to the combination of art and controversy in which he achieved notoriety in the novels of the previous decade. His Littlepage Manuscripts trilogy--Satanstoe (1845), The Chainbearer (1845), and The Redskins (1846)—dramatized issues of land ownership in response to renters in the 1840s opposing the long leases common in the old Dutch settlements in the Hudson Valley. He tried his hand with serialization with The Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief, first published in Graham's Magazine in 1843, a satire on contemporary nouveau riche. In The Crater; or, Vulcan's Peak (1847) he introduced supernatural machinery to show the decline of an ideal society in the South Seas when demagogues prevail. The Ways of the Hour, his last completed novel, portrayed a mysterious and independent young woman defending herself against criminal charges.

Cooper spent the last years of his life back in Cooperstown. He died on September 14, 1851, the day before his 62nd birthday. He was buried in the 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 memorial in New York, six months after his death, in February 1852. Daniel Webster 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.

Legacy

James Fenimore Cooper2 1940 issue
Cooper was honored on a U.S. commemorative stamp, the Famous American series, issued in 1940

Cooper was one of the more 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. Honoré de Balzac, the French novelist and playwright, admired him greatly. Henry David Thoreau, while attending Harvard, incorporated some of Cooper's style in his own work. D.H. Lawrence believed that Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Maupassant, and Flaubert were all "so very obvious and coarse, besides the lovely, mature and sensitive art of Fennimore Cooper." Lawrence called The Deerslayer "one of the most beautiful and perfect books in the world: flawless as a jewel and of gem-like concentration."

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.

Cooper was one of the early 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 relationship between frontier settlers and American Indians as exemplified in The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, depicting a captured white girl who marries an Indian chief and has a baby with him, but after several years is eventually returned to her parents. Often, he gives contrasting views of Native characters to emphasize their potential for good, or conversely, their proclivity for mayhem. The Last of the Mohicans includes both the character of Magua, who fearing the extinction of his race at the hands of the whites savagely betrays them, as well as Chingachgook, the last chief of the Mohicans, who is portrayed as Natty Bumppo's noble, courageous, and heroic counterpart.

In 1831, Cooper was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary Academician.

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

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.

Cooper Park in Michigan's Comstock Township is named after him.

The New Jersey Turnpike has a James Fenimore Cooper service area, recognizing his birth in the state.

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. 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.

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". The author was more recognizable by his middle name, Fenimore, exotic to many in Russia. This name became a symbol of exciting adventures among Russian readers. For example, in the 1977 Soviet movie The Secret of Fenimore (Russian: Тайна Фенимора), being the third part of a children's television miniseries Three Cheerful Shifts (Russian: Три весёлые смены), 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

Date Title: Subtitle Genre Topic, Location, Period
1820 Precaution novel England, 1813–1814 Upper-class romances
1821 The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground novel Westchester County, New York, 1780 Conflicts and espionage between military and guerilla forces in Revolutionary War
1823 The Pioneers; or, The Sources of the Susquehanna novel Leatherstocking, Otsego County, New York, 1793–1794, A "Descriptive Tale" of early Cooperstown
1823 Tales for Fifteen; or, Imagination and Heart short stories moralistic tales written under the pseudonym: Jane Morgan
1824 The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea novel John Paul Jones, England, 1780. The American Revolution at sea
1825 Lionel Lincoln; or, The Leaguer of Boston novel , Boston, 1775–1781 Conflicts between Patriots and Loyalists leading to Bunker Hill
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—The Louisiana Purchase
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 Cooper's response to Lafayette's request to present Americas favorably to Europeans
1829 The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish: A Tale novel Western Connecticut, Puritans and Indians, 1660–1676, King Philip's War
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. Corruption of the Venetian Republic by oligarchs
1832 The Heidenmauer; or, The Benedictines, A Legend of the Rhine novel German Rhineland, 16th century, The Protestant reformation and greed
1832 No Steamboats short story allegory satirizing European misconceptions about America which Cooper first wrote in French
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; a satire on British and American politics.
1836 The Eclipse
Listen to
memoir Solar eclipse in Cooperstown, New York Cooper's reaction to a criminal whose execution was stayed, 1806
1836 An Execution at Sea short story execution of a murderer on a ship. Cooper's authorship is questionable.
1836 Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland (Sketches of Switzerland) travel Hiking in Switzerland, 1828. All five Gleanings books full of social and political commentary.
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; author's involvement in the political upheavals of the period
1837 Gleanings in Europe: England travel Travels in England, 1826, 1828, 1833; dislike of English aristocracy
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. The Effingham family, descendants of Oliver Effingham of The Pioneers, return home from Europe
1838 Home as Found: Sequel to Homeward Bound novel Eve Effingham and her family encounter a social world new to them in New York City & Templeton/Cooperstown, New York, 1835
1839 The History of the Navy of the United States of America history U.S. 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. Middle-aged Natty Bumppo falls in love
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. Natty Bumppo as a youth
1842 The Two Admirals novel England & English Channel, Scottish uprising, 1745
1842 The Wing-and-Wing; or, Le Feu-Follet (Jack o Lantern) novel Italian coast, Napoleonic Wars, 1799
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 on the nouveau riche, France & New York, 1830s
1843 Richard Dale biography
1843 Wyandotté; or, The Hutted Knoll. A Tale novel Butternut Valley of Otsego County, New York, Indian romance, 1763–1776
1843 Ned Myers; or, Life before the Mast 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 novel Ulster County & worldwide, 1795–1805
1844 Miles Wallingford: Sequel to Afloat and Ashore
UK title: Lucy Hardinge: A Second Series of Afloat and Ashore (1844)
novel Ulster County & worldwide, 1795–1805
1844 Proceedings of the naval court martial in the case of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie Non-fiction Detailed legal assessment of Mackenzie's execution of alleged mutineers
1845 Satanstoe; or, The Littlepage Manuscripts, a Tale of the Colony novel New York City, Westchester County, Albany, Adirondacks, 1758. Prequel to the "anti-rent wars"
1845 The Chainbearer; or, The Littlepage Manuscripts novel Westchester County, Adirondacks, 1780s. Next Littlepage generation tries to settle in their lands after the Revolutionary War
1846 The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin: Being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts novel Anti-rent wars, Adirondacks, 1845. The "anti-rent" war full blown
1846 Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers biography
1847 The Crater; or, Vulcan's Peak: A Tale of the Pacific (Mark's Reef) novel Philadelphia, Bristol (PA), & deserted Pacific island, early 19th century Utopia destroyed by political strife
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. Heavy emphasis on religion.
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

See also

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