September 15, 1789- September 14, 1851
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James Cooper was born in Burlington, NJ. A year after his birth, the Cooper family moved to the banks of Otsego Lake in Otsego County, where his dad William established a home and the town Cooperstown.
James attended Yale College between 1803 and 1805 but was expelled for a dangerous prank. He then went to work as a sailor on a merchant ship and in 1808 joined the US Navy as a midshipman. During his experience with the Navy, Cooper recognized his desire and talent for writing.
After the death of his father, Cooper left the Navy and returned home to work on the farm. Shortly after his return, in 1811, he married Susan Augusta DeLancey, the daughter of a wealthy Westchester family. With Susan, James had seven children- Elizabeth, Susan, Caroline, Anne, Maria, Fenimore, and Paul.
Right after James legally took on the name “Fenimore,” in 1826, the Cooper family moved to Europe where he served as the United States Consul in Lyons, France. In 1833, they moved back to the United States to live in Cooperstown, where James died in 1851.
“By the time of his death JFC had developed an international reputation as America's "national novelist" and was probably more successful and respected abroad than at home… But both at home and abroad JFC was best known for the mythic sweep and power of his five Leatherstocking novels (The Pioneers, 1823, The Last of the Mohicans, 1826, The Prairie, 1827, The Pathfinder, 1840, and The Deerslayer, 1841). The Leatherstocking series represents, in D. H. Lawrence's words, 'a decrescendo of reality, and a crescendo of beauty,' but all his novels engaged historical themes and helped to form the popular sense of American history and romantic historiography in the nineteenth century.” (1 )
James Fenimore Cooper wrote many works on the American frontier and the plight of the Native American people, such as The Pioneers: The Sources of the Susquehanna, A Descriptive Tale (1823), The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826), The Prairie: A Tale (1827), The Pathfinder: The Inland Sea (1840), and The Deerslayer: The First War Path (1841). He also wrote tales from his experience at sea, such as The Pilot (1823), and revolutionary war romances, such as The Spy (1821).
Cooper works also include short stories and criticisms of American values, such as The American Democrat (1838), Homeward Bound (1838), and its sequel Home as Found (1838) (2).
A full list of Cooper’s
works can be found at the James
Fenimore Cooper Society Website (http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/bibliography/works.html).
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