James Fenimore Cooper

For other people named James Cooper, see James tory after British defeat in the Revolutionary War, as they
Cooper (disambiguation).
had been allies.[4]
Shortly after the American Revolutionary War, the state
opened up these former Iroquois lands for sale and development. Coopers father purchased several thousand
acres of land in upstate New York along the head-waters
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 in the autumn of 1790 moved his family there.
He soon began construction of the mansion that would be
known as Otsego Hall. It was completed in 1799 when
James was ten.[6]

James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789

September 14, 1851) was a prolic 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 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 inuenced
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 ve historical novels of the frontier period known as the Leatherstocking Tales. Among
naval historians Coopers 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, Otsego Hall, Coopers home
often regarded as his masterpiece.[4]

At the age of 13, Cooper was enrolled at Yale, but, after

inciting a dangerous prank that involved blowing up another students 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 the
age of 17 joined the crew of a merchant vessel.[2][8] By
1811, he obtained the rank of midshipman in the edgling
United States Navy, conferred upon him on an ocers
warrant signed by Thomas Jeerson.[4][9]

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, England,
who emigrated to the American colonies in 1679. James
and his wife were Quakers who purchased plots of land
in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Seventy-ve years after
his arrival in America, his great-grandson, William, was
born on December 2, 1754.[5][6] Shortly after James rst
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 terri-

At 20, Cooper inherited a fortune from his father. On

January 1, 1811, at age 21, he married Susan Augusta
de Lancey, at Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New
York.[10] She was the daughter of a wealthy family who
remained loyal to Great Britain during the American Revolution. They had seven children, ve of whom lived to
adulthood. Their daughter Susan Fenimore Cooper was
a writer on nature, female surage, and other topics. She
and her father often edited each others work.[11] Among
his descendants was Paul Fenimore Cooper (18991970),
who also became a writer.[12]
1

Service in the Navy

WRITINGS

turned with his letter of acceptance. Cooper signed the

oath and had it notarized by New York attorney William
Williams, Jr., who had previously certied the Sterlings
crew. After Williams had conrmed Coopers 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 fullled an aspiration Cooper had had since his
youth.[19]

Coopers rst 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
The young Cooper, in Midshipman's naval uniform
shores of Lake Ontario. He took frequent cruises among
In 1806, at the age of 17, Cooper joined the crew of the the Thousand Islands where he spent time shing. His
some
merchant ship Sterling as a common sailor. At the time, experiences in the Oswego area would later inspire
[22] [note 3]
of
his
work,
including
his
novel
The
Pathnder.
the Sterling was commanded by the young John Johnston
from Maine. Cooper served as a common seaman before After completion of the Oneida in 1809, Cooper accomthe mast. His rst voyage, taking some 40 stormy days panied Woolsey to Niagara Falls, and was then ordered to
at sea, brought him to an English market in Cowes with Lake Champlain to serve aboard a gunboat until the wina cargo of our. There Cooper saw his rst glimpses of ter months when the lake froze over. On November 13
England. After passing through the Strait of Dover and of the same year he was assigned to the USS Wasp under
arriving at Cowes, the Sterling dropped anchor. Because the command of Captain James Lawrence, who was from
Britain was in the midst of war with Napoleons France Burlington and a personal friend of Coopers. Aboard
at the time, their ship was immediately approached by a this ship Cooper met his lifelong friend William BranBritish man-of-war and was boarded by some of its crew. ford Shubrick, who was also a midshipman at the time.
They seized one of the Sterlings best crew members and Cooper would later dedicate The Pilot, The Red Rover,
impressed him into the British Royal Navy.[13][14][note 1]
and other writings to Shubrick.[24][25]
Their next voyage would take them to the Mediterranean
along the coast of Spain, including guilas and Cabo de
Gata where they picked up cargo to be taken back to 3 Writings
America. Their stay in Spain lasted several weeks and impressed the young sailor, the accounts of which Cooper In 1820, Coopers wife Susan wagered that he could
would later refer to in his Mercedes of Castile, a novel write a book better than the one she was reading. In reabout Columbus.[16]
sponse to the wager, Cooper wrote the novel Precaution
After serving aboard the Sterling for 11 months, Cooper (1820). Its focus on morals and manners was inujoined the United States Navy on January 1, 1808, when enced by Jane Austen's approach to ction. He anonyhe received his commission as a midshipman. Because mously published Precaution and it received favorable
Cooper had conducted himself well as a sailor, his fa- notice from the United States and England.[26] By conther, a former U.S. Congressman, easily secured a com- trast, his second novel, The Spy (1821), inspired by a
mission for his son through his long-standing connections tale related to him by neighbor and family friend John
with politicians and naval ocials.[17][18] The warrant for Jay, was more successful and became a bestseller; the
Coopers commission as midshipman was signed by Pres- setting of this Revolutionary War tale is widely believed
ident Jeerson and mailed by Naval Secretary Robert to have been John Jays family home, The Locusts in
Smith, reaching Cooper on February 19. Along with the Rye, New York.[27] In 1823, Cooper published The Piowarrant was a copy of naval rules and regulations, a de- neers, the rst of the Leatherstocking series. The series
scription of the required naval uniform along with an oath features Natty Bumppo, a resourceful American woodsthat Cooper was to sign in front of a witness and to be re- man at home with the Delaware Indians and their chief

3
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
reected the political turn he already had taken in his ction, 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]
In 1833 Cooper returned to the United States and published A Letter to My Countrymen, in which he gave his
version of the controversy and 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 rst, he wintered in New
York City and summered in Cooperstown, but eventually
Chingachgook. Bumppo was also the main character of he made Otsego Hall his permanent home.[35]
Coopers most famous novel, The Last of the Mohicans
(1826). Written in New York City, where Cooper and On May 10, 1839, Cooper published History of the Navy
his family lived from 1822 to 1826, the book became of the United States of America, a work he had long
one of the most widely read American novels of the 19th planned on writing. Before departing for Europe in May,
1826, during a parting speech at a dinner given in his
century.[28]
honor, he publicly announced his intentions to author such
In 1823, while living in New York on Beach Street in what an historical work while abroad:
is now downtowns Tribeca, Cooper became a member of
the Philadelphia Philosophical Society. In August of that
Encouraged by your kindness, I will
year his rst son died.[29]
take this opportunity of recording
In 1824 General Lafayette arrived from France aboard
the deeds and suerings of a
the Cadmus at Castle Garden in New York City as
class of men to which this nation
the nations guest. Cooper witnessed his arrival and
owes a debt of gratitude a class
was one of the active committee of welcome and
of men among whom, I am always
entertainment.[30][31]
ready to declare, not only the earliest, but many of the happiest days
In 1826 Cooper moved his family to Europe, where he
of my youth have been passed.[36]
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 His historical account of the U.S. Navy was rst well reThe Red Rover and The Water Witch, two of his many ceived but later harshly criticized in America and abroad.
sea stories. During his time in Paris, the Cooper family It took Cooper 14 years to research and gather material
was seen as the center of the small American expatriate for the book. His close association with the U.S. Navy
community. During this time he developed friendships and various ocers, and his familiarity with naval life at
with the painter Samuel Morse and with the French gen- sea provided him the background and connections to reeral and American Revolutionary War hero Gilbert du search and write this work. Coopers work is said to have
Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.[32][33]
stood the test of time and is considered an authoritative
[37]
In 1832 Cooper entered the lists as a political writer; in account of the U.S. Navy during that time.
The Last of the Mohicans
Illustration from 1896 edition,
by J.T. Merrill

a series of letters to Le National, a Parisian journal, he In 1844 Coopers Proceedings of the naval court martial

LATER LIFE

in the case of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, a commander

in the navy of the United States, &c:, was rst published in
Grahams Magazine of 184344. It was a review of the
court martial of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie who while
at sea, had hanged three crew members of the brig USS
Sommers for mutiny. One of the hanged men, 19-yearold 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 aair Cooper
was in the process of giving harsh review to Mackenzies
version of the Battle of Lake Erie. Mackenzie had previously given harsh criticism to Coopers interpretation
of the Battle of Lake Erie contained in Coopers History of the Navy of the United States, 1839). However
he still felt sympathetic to Mackenzie over his pending
court martial.[38][39]
In 1846 Cooper published Lives of Distinguished American Naval Ocers covering the biographies of Commodores William Bainbridge, Richard Somers, John
Shaw, William Shubrick and Edward Preble.[40][41]
In May 1853, Coopers Old Ironsides appeared in Put- Portrait by John Wesley Jarvis of Cooper in naval uniform
nams Monthly, It was the history of the Navy ship USS
Constitution, and became the rst posthumous publication of his writings.[42]
his critics and enemies in a series of novels called the LitIn 1856, ve years after Coopers death, his History of the tlepage Trilogy where he defended landowners along the
Navy of the United States of America was published. The Hudson River, lending them social and political support
work was an account of the U.S. Navy in the early 19th against rebellious tenant farmers in the anti-rent wars that
century.[37][43] Among naval historians of the period the marked this period. In one of his later novels, The Crater,
work has come to be recognized as a general and author- an allegory of the rise and fall of the United States, auitative account, however it was criticized for accuracy on thored in 1848, his growing sense of historical doom was
some points by other students of that period. For exam- exemplied. At the end of his career he wrote a scornple, Coopers account of the Battle of Lake Erie was said ful satire about American social life and legal practices
to be less than accurate by some naval historians. For called The Ways of the Hour, authored in 1850.
making such claims Cooper once sued Park Benjamin,
Sr., a poet and editor of the Evening Signal of New York,
for libel.[44]

3.1

Critical reaction

4 Later life
He turned again from pure ction to the combination of
art and controversy in which he had achieved distinction
with the Littlepage Manuscripts (18451846). His next
novel was The Crater, or Vulcans 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.[45]

His books related to current politics and Coopers selfpromotion increased the ill feeling between author and
public. The Whig press was virulent in its comments
about him, and Cooper led legal actions for libel, winning all his lawsuits.
Cooper spent the last years of his life back in CoopAfter concluding his last case in court, Cooper returned erstown. He died of dropsy on September 14, 1851,
to writing with more energy and success than he had had the day before his 62nd birthday. His interment was in
for several years. On May 10, 1839, he published his Christ Episcopal Churchyard, where his father, William
History of the U.S. Navy,[37] and returned to the Leather- Cooper, was buried. Coopers wife Susan survived her
stocking Tales series with The Pathnder, or The Inland husband only by a few months and was buried by his side
Sea (1840) and The Deerslayer (1841) and other novels. at Cooperstown.
He wrote again on maritime themes, including Ned My- Several well-known writers, politicians, and other pubers, or A Life Before the Mast, which is of particular in- lic gures honored Coopers memory with a dinner in
terest to naval historians.
New York, six months after his death, in February
In the late 1840s Cooper returned to his public attacks on 1852. Daniel Webster presided over the event and gave a

5
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
Coopers damaged reputation among American writers
of the time.[46][47]

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 conrmed in this church by the Reverend
Mr. Birdsall.[48][49][50]

Legacy

Coopers novels.[51] Honor de Balzac, the French novelist and playwright, admired him greatly.[52] Henry David
Thoreau, while attending Harvard, incorporated some of
Coopers style in his own work.[53]
Coopers work, particularly The Pioneers and The Pilot,
demonstrate an early 19th-century American preoccupation with prudence and negligence in a country where
property rights were often still in dispute.[54]
Cooper was one of the rst 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 exemplied 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.[55] 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,
is portrayed as noble, courageous, and heroic.[56] In 1831,
Cooper was elected into the National Academy of Design
as an Honorary Academician.
According to Tad Szulc, Cooper was a devotee of
Polands causes (uprisings to regain Polish sovereignty).
He brought ags 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.[57]
Though some scholars have hesitated to classify Cooper
as a strict Romantic, Victor Hugo pronounced him greater
than the great master of modern romance.[52] This verdict was echoed by a multitude of less famous readers,
such as Balzac and Rudolf Drescher of Germany, who
were satised with no title for their favorite less than that
of the American Scott.[58] Mark Twain famously criticized The Deerslayer and The Pathnder in his satirical
but shrewdly observant essay, "Fenimore Coopers Literary Oenses" (1895),[59] which portrays Coopers writing as cliched and overwrought. 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,
Coopers contemporary and a critic, referred to it poetStatue in Cooperstown, New York
ically in A Fable for Critics, writing, ". . . the women he
draws from one model don't vary / All sappy as maples
Cooper was one of the most popular 19th-century Amerand at as a prairie.[60]
ican authors, and his work was admired greatly throughout the world. While on his death bed, the Austrian Coopers lasting reputation today rests largely upon the
composer Franz Schubert wanted most to read more of ve Leatherstocking tales. As for the remaining body

REFERENCES

ing fascinating stories about Indians and extraterrestrials.

7 Works
Works by James Fenimore Cooper

8 Notes
[1] At this time the British naval practice of seizing American
sailors accusing them of desertion and impressing them
into the British navy was common and is largely what led
to the War of 1812.[15]
[2] Accounts vary: Phillips, 1913, p. 53 puts the date at January 12 [17]

Cooper was honored on a U.S. commemorative stamp, the

Famous American series, issued in 1940

of his work, literary scholar Leslie Fiedler notes that

Coopers collected works are monumental in their cumulative dullness.[61]

[3] Records of the government or Department of Navy provide little information regarding Coopers movements and
activities in the Navy. Knowledge of Coopers life comes
primarily from what he divulged in his published works,
notes, and letters of that period.[23]

9 References

Three dining halls at the State University of New York

at Oswego are named in Coopers remembrance (Cooper
Hall, The Pathnder, and Littlepage) because of his temporary residence in Oswego and for setting some of his
works there.[62] 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.[63] It was
brought there through the eorts 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.[64]

[1] Phillips, 1913, pp. 67

In 2013, Cooper was inducted into the New York Writers

Hall of Fame.

[7] McCullough p. 70

James Fenimore Coopers novels were very popular in

the rest of the world, including, for instance, Russia. In
particular, great interest of Russian public in Coopers
work was primarily incited by the novel The Pathnder.
A novel, which the renowned Russian literary critic
Belinsky declared to be a Shakespearean drama in the
form of a novel.[65] Their author was more recognizable
by his exotic to many in Russia middle name Fenimore,
and this name specically became a symbol of exciting
adventures. For example, in the 1977 Soviet movie The
Secret of Fenimore (Russian: ), being
the third part of a childrens television mini-series Three
cheerful shifts (Russian: , see Tri
vesyolye smeny (1977) at the Internet Movie Database),
tells of a mysterious stranger addressed to as Fenimore,
visiting nightly a boys ward in a summer camp and relat-

[2] Lounsbury, 1883, pp. 78

[3] Clary,
Suzanne,
James
Fenimore
per and Spies in Rye, My Rye,
http://www.myrye.com/my_weblog/2010/11/
james-fenimore-cooper-and-spies-in-rye.html

Cop2010,

[4] Hale, 1896, p. 657

[5] Phillips, 1913, p. 2
[6] Lounsbury, 1883, p. 2

[8] J.F. Cooper Biography

[9] Franklin, 2007, p.101
[10] Clymer, 1900, p. xii
[11] Susan Fenimore Cooper. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
[12] Wright, 1983,
Cooper Genealogy, NYS Historical Association
[13] Clymer, 1900, p. xi
[14] Phillips, 1913, pp. 4344
[15] Roosevelt, 1883 pp. 13
[16] Franklin, 2007, p. 89
[17] Phillips, 1913, p. 53

[18] Lounsbury, 1883, p. 216

[48] Lounsbury, 1883, p. 23

[19] Franklin, 2007, pp. 101102

[49] Phillips, 1913, pp. 340341

[20] Franklin, 2007, pp. 110111

[50] See Fowler, 'Modern English Usage,' Mencken 'The

American Language.' 'Crockfords 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.

[21] Clymer, 1900, p.12

[22] Phillips, 1913, pp. 5455
[23] Lounsbury, 1883, p.11
[24] Phillips, 1913, p. 216

[51] Letter from Schubert to Franz von Schober, November

12, 1828

[25] Lounsbury, 1883, p.12

[52] Phillips, 1913, p. 350
[26] Harpers New Monthly Magazine - The Haunted Lake (1
ed.). Harper and Brothers. 1872. pp. 2030.

[53] Franklin, 2007, p. xxix

[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

[54] Nan Goodman, Shifting the Blame: Literature, Law, and

the Theory of Accidents in Nineteenth-Century America.
Princeton UP 1998

[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. 7576

[56] Clymer, 1900, pp. 4344

[29] Phillips, 1913, p.99

[30] Phillips, 1913, p.114
[31] Franklin, 2007, p. 314
[32] Phillips, 1913 James Fenimore Cooper p. 239
[33] McCullough, 2011
[34] James Fenimore Cooper, The Bravo, Oneonta University.
[35] Clymer, 1900, pp. xixv
[36] Lounsbury, 1883, p. 200
[37] Phillips, 1913, p. 277
[38] Phillips, 1913, pp. 305306
[39] Clymer, 1900, pp. 110111

[55] Phillips, 1913, pp. 189190

[57] Szulc, 1998, p. 86

[58] Phillips, 1913, p. 160
[59] Fenimore
Coopers
Literary
Etext.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2012-12-24.

Oences.

[60] Porte, Joel. The Romance in America: Studies in Cooper,

Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and James. Middletown,
Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1969: 20.
[61] Fiedler, Leslie. Love and Death in the American Novel.
Dalkey Archive Press, 2008 (reprint): 180. ISBN 978-156478-163-5
[62] SUNY Oswego Peneld Library: Who Were Our
Buildings?". Oswego.edu. 1966-10-01. Retrieved 201212-24.
[63] History of White House library
[64] Archived June 10, 2010 at the Wayback Machine

[44] Clymer, 1900, p.94, 107

[65] Vissarion Belinsky (1841).

[The Division of Poetry into Genera and Species]
(text). Retrieved 28 February 2014. (In English: Cooper
is here deep interpreter of the human heart, a great painter
of the world of the soul, like Shakespeare. Denitely and
clearly he uttered the unspeakable, reconciled and merged
together internal and external and his The Pathnder
is a Shakespearean drama in the form of the novel, the
only creature in this way, having nothing equal with him,
the triumph of modern art in the epic poetry.)

[45] Book of James Fenimore Cooper. Retrieved October 17,

2012.

[66] James Fenimore Cooper (2003-12-01).

Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.

Precaution.

[46] Jones, Brian Jay. Washington Irving: An American Original. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2008: 391. ISBN
978-1-55970-836-4.

[67] James Fenimore Cooper (2006-02-01).

Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.

The Spy.

[40] Cooper, 1846, 436 pages

[41] Phillips, 1913, p. 308
[42] Cooper, James Fenimore. Old Ironsides. James Fenimore Cooper Society. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
[43] Cooper, 1856 508 pages

[47] Hale, 1896, p. 658

[68] James Fenimore Cooper (2000-08-01). The Pioneers.

Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.

10 BIBLIOGRAPHY

[69] James Fenimore Cooper (2000-08-01). Tales for Fifteen, or, Imagination and Heart. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.

[90] James Fenimore Cooper (2006-01-01). Ned Myers, or,

a Life Before the Mast. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 201212-24.

[70] James Fenimore Cooper (2005-04-01). The Pilot: A

Tale of the Sea. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.

[91] James Fenimore Cooper (2005-08-01). Aoat and

Ashore: A Sea Tale. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 201212-24.

[71] James Fenimore Cooper (2006-02-05). The Last of the

Mohicans; A narrative of 1757. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[72] James Fenimore Cooper (2004-09-01). The Prairie.
Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[73] James Fenimore Cooper (2004-03-01). The Red Rover.
Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[74] James Fenimore Cooper (2005-09-01). The Wept of
Wish-Ton-Wish. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-1224.
[75] James Fenimore Cooper (2004-05-01). The WaterWitch or, the Skimmer of the Seas. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[76] James Fenimore Cooper (2003-12-01). The Bravo.
Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[77] James Fenimore Cooper (2004-02-01). The Headsman.
Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[78] James Fenimore Cooper (2003-05-01). The Monikins.
Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[79] The Eclipse. Etext.lib.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2012-1224.
[80] Thomas Philbrick (1961). James Fenimore Cooper and
the Development of American Sea Fiction. Harvard University Press.
[81] James Fenimore Cooper (2004-07-22). A Residence in
France. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[82] James Fenimore Cooper (2006-02-01). Homeward
Bound; Or, the Chase. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 201212-24.
[83] James Fenimore Cooper (2003-11-01).
Home as
Found. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[84] Old Ironsides. External.oneonta.edu. Retrieved 201212-24.
[85] James Fenimore Cooper (1999-09-01). Pathnder; or,
the inland sea. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[86] James Fenimore Cooper (2004-04-01). The Wing-andWing. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[87] James Fenimore Cooper (2000-09-01). Autobiography
of a Pocket-Handkerchief. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved
2012-12-24.
[88] James Fenimore Cooper (2003-12-01). Wyandott, or,
The Hutted Knoll. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-1224.
[89]

[92] James Fenimore Cooper (2004-02-01). Miles Wallingford. Gutenberg.org. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[93] James Fenimore Cooper (1844). Lucy Hardinge: a second ser. of Aoat and ashore, by the author of 'The pilot'.
Books.google.com.
[94] Satanstoe; Or, the Littlepage Manuscripts. A Tale of the
Colony by Cooper Project Gutenberg. Gutenberg.org.
2005-09-01. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
[95] The Crater by James Fenimore Cooper Project Gutenberg. Gutenberg.org. 2004-03-01. Retrieved 2012-1224.
[96] Jack Tier by James Fenimore Cooper Project Gutenberg. Gutenberg.org. 2003-12-01. Retrieved 2012-1224.
[97] Oak Openings by James Fenimore Cooper Project
Gutenberg. Gutenberg.org. 2003-07-01. Retrieved
2012-12-24.
[98] The Sea Lions by James Fenimore Cooper Project
Gutenberg. Gutenberg.org. 2003-12-01. Retrieved
2012-12-24.
[99] The Lake Gun by James Fenimore Cooper Project
Gutenberg. Gutenberg.org. 2000-09-01. Retrieved
2012-12-24.
[100] New York by James Fenimore Cooper Project Gutenberg. Gutenberg.org. 2001-01-01. Retrieved 2012-1224.

10 Bibliography
Biography of James Fenimore Cooper (1789
1851)". American Studies at the University of Virginia.
Clymer, William Branford Shubrick (1900). James
Fenimore Cooper. Small, Maynard & Company,
Boston. p. 149.
Franklin, Wayne (2007). James Fenimore Cooper:
The Early Years, Volume 1. Yale University Press.
p. 708. ISBN 978-0-300-10805-7.
Hale, Edward Everett (1896). Illustrious Americans, Their Lives and Great Achievements. Philadelphia Chicago: International Publishing Company,
Philadelphia, PA., and Chicago, ILL, Entered 1896,
by W. E. SCULL, in the oce of the Librarian of
Congress, Washington, DC. ISBN 9781162227023.

9
Lounsbury, Thomas R. (1883). James Fenimore
Cooper. Houghton, Miin and Company, Boston.
p. 149.
McCullough, David (2011). The Greater Journey:
Americans in Paris. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781-4165-7176-6.
O'Daniel, Therman B. (2nd Qtr., 1947). Coopers
Treatment of the Negro. Phylon (19401956)
(Clark Atlanta University) 8 (2): 164176. JSTOR
271724. Check date values in: |date= (help)
Phillips, Mary Elizabeth (1913). James Fenimore
Cooper. John Lane Company, New York, London.
p. 368.
Roosevelt, Theodore (1883). The naval war of
1812:.
G. P. Putnams sons, New York. p. 541.
Wright, Wayne W. (1983). Hugh C. MacDougal,
ed. The Cooper Genealogy. New York State Historical Association.

10.1

Primary sources

Cooper, James Fenimore (1846). Lives of distinguished American naval ocers.

Carey and Hart, Philadelphia. p. 436. OCLC
620356. Url1
(1853). Old Ironsides. G. P. Putnam, 1853.
p. 49. Url

-- (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 17891851.
Cooperstown: James Fenimore Cooper Soc., 1993.
Rans, Georey. Coopers Leather-Stocking Novels:
A Secular Reading. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North
Carolina, 1991.
Redekop, Ernest H., ed. (1989). James Fenimore
Cooper, 17891989: Bicentennial Essays, Canadian
Review of American Studies, entire special issue, vol.
20, no. 3 (Winter 1989), pp. [1]164. ISSN 00077720
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.

(1856). History of the navy of the United

States of America.
Stringer & Townsend, New York. p. 508. OCLC
197401914. Url

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,

(1852). The Chainbearer, Or The Littlepage

Manuscripts, Stringer and Townsend, 228 pages;
eBook

Verhoeven, W. M. (1993). James Fenimore Cooper:

New Historical and Literary Contexts, Rodopi publishers, 217 pages; ISBN 9789051833607; Book

11

Further reading

Clavel, Marcel (1938). Fenimore Cooper and his

critics: American, British and French criticisms of
the novelists early work, Imprimerie universitaire de
Provence, E. Fourcine, 418 pages; Book
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

12 External links
Works by James Fenimore Cooper at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about James Fenimore Cooper at
Internet Archive
Works by James Fenimore Cooper at LibriVox
(public domain audiobooks)
James Fenimore Cooper at Open Library
James Fenimore Cooper Society Homepage
James Fenimore Cooper at the Internet Movie
Database

10
Finding Aid for the James Fenimore Cooper Collection of Papers, 1825-1904, New York Public Library
James Fenimore Cooper Letters and Manuscript
Fragments. Available online though Lehigh Universitys I Remain: A Digital Archive of Letters,
Manuscripts, and Ephemera

12

EXTERNAL LINKS

11

13
13.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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TwoTwoHello, VIAFbot, Pvang123, Gpater5971, Hu Ping Sanchez, Cherubinirules, Linonia, Jandriscoll, GavinWikia, DudeWithAFeud,
Pencilcity, Tigercompanion25, Jamesfenimore, Liance, Davethemaster, Minard38, KasparBot, Heather-2004 and Anonymous: 387

13.2

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