James Fenimore Cooper :: Essays Papers

James Fenimore barrel makerJames Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, wise Jersey on September 15, 1789 to William and Elizabeth Cooper. He was born the eleventh of 12 children. When James was one year old the family moved to the edge of Lake Otsego, bran-new York, and his father established the settlement of Cooperstown at the head of the Susquehanna River. Cooper be a private prep school in Albany, New York, and was hence admitted to Yale in 1803. He was expelled during his junior year because of a prank. His family tout ensembleowed him to join the navy, save he soon found that more discipline was present in the Navy than at Yale. In 1810 Cooper took a furlough, and never returned to busy duty. James Fenimore Cooper married Susan De Lancy in 1811, and for the next ten age he lived as a country gentleman. However, after the death of all five of his elder brothers he became responsible for supporting their widows and paying their debts. He then found out that his fathers estate had non been worth as much as originally thought. In 1820 Cooper published his freshman fiction, Precaution, on a challenge from his wife. This novel was largely unsuccessful. In 1821 he published his second book, The Spy, which was modeled after Sir Walter Scotts Waverly novels, except it was set during the American Revolution. The Spy brought Cooper international fame and a certain amount of wealth.Coopers deuce-ace book, The Pioneers, was the first of five novels that made up the Leatherstocking Tales. These were immensely popular frontier novels featuring a frontiersman by the name of Natty Bumpo, or Hawkeye. The Pioneers is mostly considered to be the first truly American novel. The five novels of the series were not written in their narrative order, and were produced over a period of eighteen years.Cooper and his wife had five children, and they lived in Europe from 1826 until 1833 for the education of their children. When Cooper returned to America in 1833 he found he was rather less-traveled due to his works Notions of the Americans and Letter to General Lafayette, which he had written duration living in Europe.