JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
American author (1789-1851)
Biography:
James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington in 1789 and grew in Cooperstown Colony, founded by his father. His stories on Indian people are set in this area that his father, William Cooper, colonized.
He was discovered as a talented writer after reading one tale that he disregarded. But his first novel Precaution (1820) went unnoticed. It was in 1821 that he became successful, not only in America but also in Europe, for his novel The Spy.
Natty Bumpper, also called "Leatherstocking" by the settlers and "Hawkeye","Deerslayer" and "Pathfinder" by his Indian friends, has become the main character of five novels in Leather Stocking Novels (1823-1841), which recall the English and French war of the 18th century. Among his novels, The Last of the Mohicans, Prairie and Deerslayer are the most famous ones.
However, less corcerned about literature than about controversy and ideology, Cooper published some non-fictional works, such as his critical book The American Democrat (1838). Although his style was considered simple and naive by Mark Twain and Poe, he stands as the author who better recalled America during its heroic times.
Cooper died in Cooperstown in 1851.
James Fennimore Cooper, author of illustrated works:
Oeuvres, illustrated by Bertall, Barba, 1836.
Le Dernier des Mohicans, illustrated by Elviro Michael Andriolli, Firmin-Didot, 1884.
La Prairie, illustrated by Elviro Michael Andriolli, Firmin-Didot, 1885, 135 illustrations.
Last of the Mohicans, illustrated by Nexell Convers Wyeth, de Scribner, 1919.
La Prairie, illustrated by Louis Charles Bombled, Boivin, 1932.
James Fenimore Cooper on the Internet:
James Fenimore Cooper's text (in English)
James Fenimore Cooper Society (in English)