An AOIT webpage assignment created by: Jellian Chala
James
was born at Burlington, New
York, On September 15, 1789 and died of dropsy at the Cooperstown, New
York in 1851. His father was a person of ability, who
served the public as judge and as member of Congress. The boy was
reared on his father's estate near Lake Otsego. In that then wild
region Cooper may have received impressions which were valuable in his
delineations of border life and character.
His school life began at Albany
and New
Haven. At the age of thirteen he entered Yale College, where he studied
for three years. The youngest student on the rolls, he yet sustained
himself in his classes and gained a good education. In his sixteenth
year he entered the United States navy, where he served for six years.Cooper made a
few voyages to
perfect
himself in seamanship. Having obtained a commission as lieutenant, he
married, and resigning his commission in 1811, entered upon a life of
literary labor. He settled at Westchester, where, in 1819, he produced
"Precaution," a novel of the fashionable school. The book was published
anonymously and attracted but little attention. It was taken for
granted that a new writer was skirmishing under an assumed name to test
his ability. The little attention given to the first book, encouraged
the author to try again, hence, in 1821, appeared "The Spy," a powerful
and interesting romance, founded upon incidents connected with the
American Revolution. The great success of "The Spy" at once established
the author's popularity; and, in 1823, his fame was still more
increased by "The Pioneers," the first of the Leather-stocking series,
and "The Pilot," a bold and dashing sea story. The above works placed
Cooper in a very favorable light before the public. He at once became
popular both in the New and Old World. Thus encouraged he entered in
earnest upon a very fruitful literary career. In 1825 he
published "Lionel
Lincoln," a
feeble work; 1826, "Last of the Mohicans," a book often quoted as his
masterpiece; and in the same year he went to France, where he published
"The Prairie," and in the succeeding year, "The Red Rover." These are
among his very best works. In nearly all respects "The Prairie" is his
best effort. In 1826 Cooper seemed to be the most popular living
novelist. "The Wept of the Wish-ton Wish," appeared in 1827; "The
Notions of a
Traveling Bachelor," 1828; "The Water Witch," 1830, the poorest of his
sea stories; "The Bravo," 1831; "The Heidenmauer," 1832; "The Headman
of Berne," 1833. These works were all widely read on both sides of the
Atlantic. The object of most of his writings while abroad was to exalt
the masses at the expense of the aristocracy. While abroad he also
wrote a series of letters for the "National," a journal of Paris, in
which he defended his country against certain charges that had been
made by the "Revue Britannique."The Society
dedicates itself "to
promoting the study of the life and works of James
Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), encouraging the enjoyment of his 32
novels, and appreciation of his ideas,
[and] providing useful information to students, scholars, and
readers."
The definitive Cooper site, in my mind. Includes extensive
biographical
material (including a Cooper genealogy), a picture gallery, a section
entitled
"About Cooper's Writings," which provides detailed plot and character
notes for each novel as well as an index for all his characters, links
to a
large array of online scholarly articles about Cooper and his writings
(including many seminar papers), and much more. 
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The
Last of the Mohicans is
a story of romance and adventure on the American frontier. It is a
story of love and loyalty, and of America's coming of age. While the
French and Indians besiege Fort William Henry, Cora and Alice Munro,
daughters of the English commander, are on their way to join him. They
are accompanied by Major Duncan Heyward, Alice's fiancé, and by
the
treacherous Indian Magua, who secretly serves the French. Magua plans
to betray the party
to the Iroquois, and to claim Cora as
his squaw,
but he is foiled by the scout Hawkeye
and his companions, Chingachgook
and his son Uncas, who deliver the girls to their father. After the
fall of the fort, the girls are given safe passage by the French, but
Magua captures them and they become prisoners of the Indians. To rescue
Alice and Cora, Hawkeye and Uncas lead the Mohicans against the Hurons,
an action filled with unforeseen consequences for all of them.
Set in the
immense landscape of the
Great Plains, The Prairie
(1827) addresses many questions raised by the penetration of the
American west: the displacement of the Indians, the destruction of
nature, and the creation of a just society both ordered and free. Natty
Bumppo, a man now in the autumn of his days, is the spokesman for the
conservation of the natural environment. But as his physical prowess
wanes he is ultimately unable to thwart the despoilers. In this, the
last in the series of five Leatherstocking Tales, Cooper resolves the
issues of The Pioneers and The Last of
the Mohicans,
but at the same time eloquently suggests that humility, self-control,
reverence for God, and respect for nature are tragically lost on the
prairie.
The
plan of
this tale
suggested itself to the writer many years since,
though tbe details are altogether of recent in-vention. The idea of
associating seamen and savages in incidents that might be supposed
characteristic of the Great Lakes having been mentioned to a Publisher,
the latter obtained something like a pledge from the Author to carry
out the design at some future day, which pledge is now tardily and
imperfectly redeemed.
The Deerslayer is the first of the Leatherstocking Tales
of James Fenimore Cooper. Here we meet Natty Bumppo as a young man
living in upstate New York in the early 1740s. The action begins as
Bumppo, called "Deerslayer," and his friend Hurry Harry
approach Lake Glimmerglass, or Oswego, where the trapper Thomas Hutter
lives with his daughters, the beautiful Judith and the feeble-minded
Hetty. Hutter's floating log fort is attacked by Iroquois Indians, and
the two frontiersmen join in the fight.
Cooper's most
enduringly popular
novel combines heroism and romance with powerful criticism of the
destruction of nature and tradition.
Set against the French and Indian siege of Fort William Henry in 1757, The Last of the Mohicans recounts the story of two sisters, Cora and Alice Munro, daughters of the English commander, who are struggling to be reunited with their father. They are aided in their perilous journey by Hawk-eye, a frontier scout and his companions Chingachgook and Uncas, the only two survivors of the Mohican tribe. But their lives are endangered by the Mangua, the savage Indian traitor who captures the sisters, wanting Cora to be his squaw.
In setting Indian against Indian
and the brutal society of the white man against the civilization of the
Mohican, Cooper, more than any author before or since, shaped the
American sense of itself as a nation.
