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Cooper's first novel in a well-known series. Cooper, James Fenimore: short biography, books

Cooper's first novel in a well-known series. Cooper, James Fenimore: short biography, books

29.08.2019

James Fenimore Cooper, one of the most famous American writers, is considered the first who began to write about the then American reality. He, too, to some extent can be called my countryman, because he grew up in the state of New York, in the town of his name, or rather the name of his father. This town is located about three hours from where I live. In general, not so far. I have to go to New Jersey next week on business, and I will try to turn into Cooperstown on the way and see this place with my own eyes.

Shortly after the birth of Fenimore, he was born on September 15, 1789, his father, a wealthy landowner, moved to the state of New York and founded the village of Cooperstown there, which turned into a town. After receiving his initial education at a local school, Cooper went to Yale University, but, without completing the course, he entered the naval service; was appointed to be in the construction of a military vessel on Lake Ontario.

Fenimore Cooper's house in Cooperstown

We owe this circumstance to the magnificent descriptions of Ontario found in his famous novel The Pathfinder, or On the Shores of Ontario (The Pathfinder). In 1811, Cooper married a Frenchwoman, Delaney, who came from a family that was sympathetic to England during the Revolutionary War; her influence explains the relatively mild comments about the British and the English government that are found in Cooper's early novels. Chance made him a writer. While reading a novel aloud to his wife one day, Cooper remarked that it was not difficult to write better. His wife took him at his word: in order not to seem like a braggart, he wrote his first novel Precaution (1820) in a few weeks.
Assuming that, in view of the already begun competition between English and American authors, English criticism would react unfavorably to his work, Cooper did not sign his name and transferred the action of his novel to England. The latter circumstance could only damage the book, which revealed the author's poor knowledge of English life and caused very unfavorable reviews of English criticism. Cooper's second novel, already from American life, was the famous The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground (1821), which was a huge success not only in America, but also in Europe.
Then Cooper wrote a whole series of novels from American life (The Pioneers, 1823; The Last of the Mohicans, 1826; The Steppes, otherwise The Prairie, 1827; The Discoverer of Traces, otherwise The Pathfinder, 1840; deer”, otherwise “St. The hero of these novels is the hunter Natti (Nathanael) Bumpo, acting under various names (St.

The success of this series of novels was so great that even English critics had to recognize Cooper's talent and called him the American Walter Scott. In 1826, Cooper went to Europe, where he spent seven years. The fruit of this journey was several novels ("Bravo", "The Headsman", "Mercedes of Castile"), which are set in Europe.
The mastery of the story and its ever-increasing interest, the brightness of the descriptions of nature, which breathes with the primitive freshness of the virgin forests of America, the relief in the depiction of characters that stand before the reader as if alive - such are the virtues of Cooper as a novelist. He also wrote the marine novels The Pilot (1823) and The Red Corsair (1828).

Upon his return from Europe, Cooper wrote the political allegory Monikina (1835), five volumes of travel writing (1836-1838), several novels from American life (Satanstow; 1845 and others), the pamphlet The American Democrat (The American Democrat, 1838). In addition, he also wrote the "History of the United States Navy" ("History of the United States Navy", 1839). The desire for complete impartiality revealed in this work did not satisfy either his countrymen or the English; the controversy he provoked poisoned the last years of Cooper's life. Fenimore Cooper died on September 14, 1851 in Cooperstown from cirrhosis of the liver.

Monument to Cooper in Cooperstown

In the early 1840s, Cooper's novels were also very popular in Russia. The first translations into Russian were made by the children's writer A. O. Ishimova. In particular, The Pathfinder, or On the Shores of Ontario, The Pathfinder, Russian translation of 1841, which V. G. Belinsky expressed that it was a Shakespearean drama in the form novel.

Bibliography

1820 composes for his daughters the traditional novel of manners "Precaution" (Precaution).
1821 historical novel The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground, based on local lore. The novel poeticizes the era of the American Revolution and its ordinary heroes. "Spy" receives international recognition. Cooper moved with his family to New York, where he soon became a prominent literary figure and leader of writers who stood up for the national identity of American literature.
1823:
the first novel is published, later the fourth part of the Pentalogy about the Leather Stocking - The Pioneers, or The sources of the Susquehanna.
short stories (Tales for Fifteen: or Imagination and Heart)
novel "The Pilot" (The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea), the first of Cooper's many works about adventures at sea.
1825:
novel "Lionel Lincoln, or the Siege of Boston" (Lionel Lincoln, or The leaguer of Boston).
1826 - The second part of the pentalogy about Natti Bumpo, Cooper's most popular novel, whose title has become a household name - "The Last of the Mohicans" (The Last of the Mohicans).
1827 - the fifth part of the pentalogy novel "The Steppes", otherwise "The Prairie" (The Prairie).
1828:
maritime novel "The Red Corsair" (The Red Rover).
Notions of the Americans: Picked up by a Traveling Bachelor
1829 - The wept of Wish-ton-Wish novel, dedicated to the Indian theme - the battles of American colonists of the 17th century. with the Indians.
1830:
the fantastic story of the eponymous brigantine "Sea Witch" (The Water-Witch: or the Skimmer of the Seas).
Letter to General Lafayette politics
1831 - the first part of a trilogy from the history of European feudalism "Bravo, Or In Venice" (The bravo) - a novel from the distant past of Venice.
1832:
The second part of the trilogy "Heidenmauer, or the Benedictines" (The Heidenmauer: or, The Benedictines, A Legend of the Rhine) is a historical novel from the time of the early Reformation in Germany.
short stories (No Steamboats)
1833 - the third part of the trilogy "The headsman, or The Abbaye des vignerons" - a legend of the XVIII century. about the hereditary executioners of the Swiss canton of Bern.
1834 (A Letter to His Countrymen)
1835 - criticism of American reality in the political allegory "The Monikins" (The Monikins), written in the tradition of educational allegorism and satire by J. Swift.
1836:
memoir (The Eclipse)
Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland (Sketches of Switzerland)
Gleanings in Europe: The Rhine
A Residence in France: With an Excursion Up the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland
1837:
Gleanings in Europe: France travel
Gleanings in Europe: England travel
1838:
pamphlet "The American Democrat" (The American Democrat: or Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America).
Gleanings in Europe: Italy travel
The Chronicles of Cooperstown
Hommeward Bound: or The Chase: A Tale of the Sea
Home as Found: Sequel to Homeward Bound
1839:
"The History of the Navy of the United States of America", testifying to the excellent command of the material and love for navigation.
old ironsides
1840:
The Pathfinder, or The inland sea is the third part of the pentalogy about Natty Bumpo
novel about the discovery of America by Columbus "Mercedes of Castile" (Mercedes of Castile: or, The Voyage to Cathay).
1841 - "The Deerslayer: or The First Warpath" - the first part of the pentalogy.
1842:
the novel "The two admirals" (The two admirals), telling an episode from the history of the British fleet, leading the war with France in 1745
a novel about French privateering, Wing-and-Wing, or Le feu-follet.
1843 Wyandotte: or The Hutted Knoll. A Tale, a novel about the American Revolution in the backcountry of America.
Richard Dale
biography (Ned Myers: or Life before the Mast)
(Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief or Le Mouchoir: An Autobiographical Romance or The French Governess: or The Embroidered Handkerchief or Die franzosischer Erzieheren: oder das gestickte Taschentuch)
1844:
Afloat and Ashore: or The Adventures of Miles Wallingford. A Sea Tale novel
and its sequel "Miles Wallingford" (Miles Wallingford: Sequel to Afloat and Ashore), where the image of the protagonist has autobiographical features.
Proceedings of the Naval Court-Martial in the Case of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, &c.
1845 - two parts of the "trilogy in defense of land rent": "Satanstow" (Satanstoe: or The Littlepage Manuscripts, a Tale of the Colony) and "The Surveyor" (The Chainbearer; or, The Littlepage Manuscripts).
1846 - the third part of the trilogy - the novel "Redskins" (The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin: Being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts). In this trilogy, Cooper depicts three generations of landowners (from the middle of the 18th century to the struggle against land rent in the 1840s).
Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers biography
1847 - The pessimism of the late Cooper is expressed in the utopia "The Crater" (The Crater; or, Vulcan's Peak: A Tale of the Pacific), which is an allegorical history of the United States.
1848:
the novel The Oak Grove or The Oak Openings: or the Bee-Hunter is from the history of the Anglo-American War of 1812.
Jack Tier: or the Florida Reefs
1849 - Cooper's last marine novel, The Sea Lions: The Lost Sealers, about a shipwreck that befell seal hunters in the ice of Antarctica.
1850
Cooper's latest book, The Ways of the Hour, is a social novel about American judiciary.
play (Upside Down: or Philosophy in Petticoats), a satirization of socialism
1851
short story (The Lake Gun)
(New York: or The Towns of Manhattan) is an unfinished work on the history of New York City.

Cooperstown today

Fenimore Cooper a brief biography and interesting facts from the life of an American novelist are set out in this article e.

Fenimore Cooper short biography

The future American writer was born in 1879 in the city of Burlington (New Jersey) in the family of a farmer. Since his parents had financial means, they were able to give their son a decent education: at first he studied at a local school, after which he was sent to Yale College.

But college education was not to the liking of young Cooper, and at the age of 17 he entered the naval service. First, James served as a sailor on a merchant ship, then on a military one. The future writer sailed the Great Lakes, the Atlantic Ocean. During his travels, Fenimore discovered the world for himself, gained life experience. In 1810, James's father died, and the young man ended his naval career, having inherited a decent fortune at that time. A year later, Fenimore Cooper marries and begins to lead a sedentary lifestyle, settling in the town of Scarsdale. In 1821 he wrote his first work "Precaution".

Continuing his literary activity, the writer wrote the patriotic novel The Spy, in which he expressed his interest in the war for independence taking place in America. His books quickly became popular all over the world. James in 1826 goes on a "literary tour" of Europe. For a long time he lived in France and Italy, being interested in the Old and New Worlds. In Europe, the novelist wrote novels on the maritime theme - "Sea Sorceress", "Red Corsair", as well as a fascinating medieval trilogy "The Executioner", "Heidenmauer", "Bravo".

After 7 years spent in Europe, Fenimore Cooper returns to America and observes the following picture: the industrial revolution destroyed patriarchal relations in society, and money became the main priority in people's thinking. The writer called this phenomenon a moral eclipse and tried to urge fellow citizens to fight against distorted morality. But the American bourgeois accused Cooper of personal arrogance, lack of patriotism and literary talent.

After such a fiasco, the writer retires to the village of Cooperstown, continuing to write historical and journalistic novels about the city of New York and the US Navy. The great writer died in September 1851.

The most famous works of Fenimore Cooper- "Pioneers", "St. John's Wort", "Pathfinder", "The Last of the Mohicans", "Prairie".

Fenimore Cooper interesting facts

In 1811, Cooper married a French woman, Delaney. She loved to read books. According to legend, James read a novel to his wife aloud and dropped the phrase that he could write just as well himself. Delana argued with her husband about this. And Fenimore a few weeks later wrote a novel called "Precaution".
James Cooper's parents were financially wealthy people and had a high position in society. They lived in a big house called Otsego Hall. Therefore, they gave their son the best education.
The author's first novel, The Precaution, was published anonymously.
He was 11 of 12 children in the family. However, most of them died in childhood. Cooper himself had 7 children, of whom the 2nd died at an early age.
In 1826, James took the double surname Fenimore-Cooper, after relatives on his mother's side. Over time, the hyphen disappeared from the surname.
The novel "The Last of the Mohicans" is considered a masterpiece.
At the age of 13, the author was enrolled at Yale University. In his third year, Cooper was expelled due to some stunts. He blew open the door of one student and tied the donkey in the reading room.

English James Fenimore Cooper

American novelist and satirist, classic of adventure literature

Fenimore Cooper

short biography

American novelist, the first writer of the New World, whose work was recognized by the Old World and became a powerful stimulus for the further development of the American novel.

His homeland was Burlington (New Jersey), where he was born on September 15, 1789 in a family headed by a judge, congressman, large landowner. He became the founder of the village of Cooperstown in the state of New York, which quickly turned into a small town. There, James Fenimore was educated at a local school, and, as a 14-year-old teenager, became a student at Yale University. It was not possible to get a higher education, because. for violations of discipline, Cooper was expelled from the alma mater.

During 1806-1811. the future writer served in the merchant, later in the navy. In particular, he happened to participate in the construction of a warship on Lake Ontario. The knowledge and impressions gained subsequently helped him to please the public with excellent descriptions of the lake in his works.

In 1811, Cooper became a family man, his wife was a Frenchwoman, Delana. It was through a chance dispute with her that, as legend has it, James Fenimore tried himself as a man of letters. The reason was allegedly the phrase he dropped while reading aloud someone's novel, that it is better to write easily. As a result, in just a few weeks, the novel "Precaution" was written, which takes place in England. It happened in 1820. The debut went unnoticed by the public. But already in 1821, The Spy, or The Tale of No Man's Land was published, romanticizing the period of the American Revolution and the struggle for national independence, and the author became famous not only at home, but also in European countries.

Written in subsequent years, the cycle of novels The Pioneers, or Origins of the Sasquianna (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), Pathfinder, or Lake-Sea (1840), Deerslayer, or the First Warpath" (1841), dedicated to the American Indians and their relations with Europeans, glorified James Fenimore Cooper throughout the world. The somewhat idealized image of the hunter Natty Bumpo, the equally interesting images of Chingachgook and some other "children of nature" quickly aroused universal sympathy for themselves. The success of the series of novels was enormous, and even the harsh British critics, who called him the American Walter Scott, were forced to recognize him.

Even after becoming a famous writer, J.F. Cooper was not exclusively engaged in literature. In 1826-1833. his biography is associated with a large-scale journey across the European continent as an American consul in French Lyon (the position was rather nominal than requiring active work). Cooper visited not only France, but also Germany, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy.

Gained fame and so-called. marine novels, in particular, "The Pilot" (1823), "Red Corsair" (1828), "Sea Witch" (1830), "Mercedes from Castile" (1840). There is in the creative heritage of J.F. Cooper works of a historical, political, journalistic nature. His "History of the American Navy," published in 1839, distinguished by its desire for impartiality, turned both the Americans and the British against him. In particular, the residents of Cooperstown decided to remove all the books of the famous countryman from the local library. Litigation with them, with the journalistic fraternity, took a lot of Cooper's strength and health in the last years of his life. He died on September 14, 1851, the cause of death was cirrhosis of the liver.

Biography from Wikipedia

James Fenimore Cooper(Eng. James Fenimore Cooper; September 15, 1789, Burlington, USA - September 14, 1851, Cooperstown, USA) was an American novelist and satirist. Classic adventure literature.

Shortly after Fenimore's birth, his father, Judge William Cooper, a fairly wealthy Quaker landowner, moved to the state of New York and founded the village of Cooperstown there, which turned into a town. After receiving his initial education at a local school, Cooper went to Yale University, but, without completing the course, he entered the naval service (1806-1811) and was assigned to build a military ship on Lake Ontario. To this circumstance we owe the wonderful descriptions of Ontario found in his famous novel Pathfinder, or On the Shores of Ontario.

In 1811, Cooper married a Frenchwoman, Susan Augusta Delancey, who came from a family sympathetic to England during the Revolutionary War; her influence explains the relatively mild comments about the British and the English government that are found in Cooper's early novels. Chance made him a writer. Reading a novel aloud to his wife one day, Cooper remarked that it was easy to write better. His wife took him at his word, and in order not to seem like a braggart, he wrote his first novel Precaution (1820) in a few weeks.

Novels

M. Brady. cooper(c. 1850)

Assuming that, in view of the already begun competition between English and American authors, English criticism would react unfavorably to his work, Cooper did not sign his name for the first novel, Precaution (1820), and transferred the action of this novel to England. The latter circumstance could only damage the book, which revealed the author's poor knowledge of English life and caused very unfavorable reviews of English criticism. Cooper's second novel, already from American life, was the famous The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground (1821), which was a huge success not only in America, but also in Europe.

Cooper then wrote a whole series of novels of American life:

"Pioneers, or At the origins of the Susquihanna", 1823;
"The Last of the Mohicans", 1826;
"Steppes", otherwise "Prairie", 1827;
"Discoverer of traces", otherwise "Pathfinder", 1840;
"Hunter for deer", otherwise "St. John's wort, or the First warpath", 1841).

In them, he depicted the wars of European aliens among themselves, in which they involved the American Indians, forcing the tribes to fight against each other. The hero of these novels is the hunter Natty (Nathaniel) Bumpo, acting under various names (St. Idealized, although with subtle humor and satire, usually accessible only to an adult reader, are not only this representative of European civilization in Cooper, but also some of the Indians (Chingachguk, Uncas).

The mastery of the story and its ever-increasing interest, the brightness of the descriptions of nature, which breathes with the primitive freshness of the virgin forests of America, the relief in the depiction of the characters that stand before the reader as if alive - these are the virtues of Cooper as a novelist. He also wrote the marine novels The Pilot, or Sea Story (1823) and The Red Corsair (1827).

After Europe

In Russia

In the early 1840s, Cooper's novels were also very popular in Russia. The first translations into Russian were made by the children's writer A. O. Ishimova. In particular, the novel The Pathfinder, Russian translation of 1841, published in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, aroused great interest of the public, about which V. G. Belinsky expressed that it was a Shakespearean drama in the form of a novel.

Adventure novels by James Fenimore Cooper were very popular in the USSR, their author was quickly recognized by his second, rare, name. Fenimore. For example, in the film "The Secret of Fenimore", the third series of the children's television mini-series "Three Funny Shifts" in 1977 based on the stories of Y. Yakovlev, it tells about a mysterious stranger named Fenimore, who in the pioneer camp comes at night to the ward to the boys and tells amazing stories about Indians and aliens.

Bibliography

1820 :
- composes the traditional morality novel Precaution for her daughters.

1821 :
- historical novel The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground, based on local lore. The novel poeticizes the era of the American Revolution and its ordinary heroes. "Spy" receives international recognition. Cooper moved with his family to New York, where he soon became a prominent literary figure and leader of writers who stood up for the national identity of American literature.

1823 :
- the fourth part of the pentalogy about Natty Bumpo "Pioneers, or at the origins of the Susquihanna"
- short stories (Tales for Fifteen: or Imagination and Heart)
- the novel The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea, the first of Cooper's many works about adventures at sea.

1825 :
- novel "Lionel Lincoln, or the Siege of Boston" (Lionel Lincoln, or The leaguer of Boston).

1826 :
- the second part of the pentalogy about Natty Bumpo, Cooper's most popular novel, whose title has become a household name, is The Last of the Mohicans.

1827 :
- the fifth part of the pentalogy is the novel "Steppes", otherwise "The Prairie" (The Prairie).
- maritime novel "The Red Corsair" (The Red Rover).
1828 :

- Notions of the Americans: Picked up by a Traveling Bachelor

1829 :
- the novel "Valley of Wish-ton-Wish" (The wept of Wish-ton-Wish), dedicated to the Indian theme - the battles of American colonists of the 17th century with the Indians.

1830 :
- the fantastic story of the eponymous brigantine "Sea Witch" (The Water-Witch: or the Skimmer of the Seas).
- Letter to General Lafayette politics

1831 :
- the first part of a trilogy from the history of European feudalism "Bravo, or in Venice" (The bravo) - a novel from the distant past of Venice.

1832 :
- The second part of the trilogy "Heidenmauer, or the Benedictines" (The Heidenmauer: or, The Benedictines, A Legend of the Rhine) is a historical novel from the time of the early Reformation in Germany.
- short stories (No Steamboats)

1833 :
- The third part of the trilogy "The headsman, or The Abbaye des vignerons" is an 18th-century legend about the hereditary executioners of the Swiss canton of Bern.

1834 :
- (A Letter to His Countrymen)

1835 :
- criticism of American reality in the political allegory "The Monikins", written in the tradition of enlightenment allegorism and satire by J. Swift.

1836 :
- memoir (The Eclipse)
- Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland (Sketches of Switzerland)
- Gleanings in Europe: The Rhine
- A Residence in France: With an Excursion Up the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland

1837 :
- Gleanings in Europe: France travel
- Gleanings in Europe: England travel

1838 :
- pamphlet "The American Democrat" (The American Democrat: or Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America).
- Gleanings in Europe: Italy travel
- The Chronicles of Cooperstown
- Hommeward Bound: or The Chase: A Tale of the Sea
- Home as Found: Sequel to Homeward Bound

1839 :
- "The History of the Navy of the United States of America", testifying to the excellent command of the material and love for navigation.
- old ironsides

1840 :
- "The Pathfinder, or On the Shores of Ontario" or "The Pathfinder, or The inland sea" - the third part of the pentalogy about Natty Bumpo
- novel about the discovery of America by Columbus "Mercedes of Castile: or, The Voyage to Cathay".

1841 :
- Deerslayer: or The First Warpath is the first part of the pentalogy.

1842 :
- the novel "The two admirals" (The two admirals), telling an episode from the history of the British fleet, leading the war with France in 1745
- a novel about French privateering, Wing-and-Wing, or Le feu-follet.

1843 :
- Wyandotte: or The Hutted Knoll. A Tale is a novel about the American Revolution in the backcountry of America.
- Richard Dale
- biography (Ned Myers: or Life before the Mast)
- (Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief or Le Mouchoir: An Autobiographical Romance or The French Governess: or The Embroidered Handkerchief or Die franzosischer Erzieheren: oder das gestickte Taschentuch)

1844 :
- novel Afloat and Ashore: or The Adventures of Miles Wallingford. A Sea Tale
- and its sequel "Miles Wallingford" (Miles Wallingford: Sequel to Afloat and Ashore), where the image of the protagonist has autobiographical features.
- Proceedings of the Naval Court-Martial in the Case of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, &c.

1845 :
- two parts of the “land rent trilogy”: “Satanstow” (Satanstoe: or The Littlepage Manuscripts, a Tale of the Colony) and “The Surveyor” (The Chainbearer; or, The Littlepage Manuscripts).

1846 :
- The third installment in the trilogy is The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin: Being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts. In this trilogy, Cooper portrays three generations of landowners (from the middle of the 18th century to the struggle against land rent in the 1840s).
- Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers biography

1847 :
- the pessimism of the late Cooper is expressed in the utopia The Crater; or, Vulcan's Peak: A Tale of the Pacific, which is an allegorical history of the United States.

1848 :
- the novel "Oak Grove" or "Clearings in the oak trees, or the Bee-Hunter" (The Oak Openings: or the Bee-Hunter) - from the history of the Anglo-American war of 1812.
- Jack Tier: or the Florida Reefs novel

1849 :
- Cooper's latest marine novel, The Sea Lions: The Lost Sealers, is about a shipwreck that befell seal hunters in the ice of Antarctica.

1850 :
- Cooper's latest book, The Ways of the Hour, is a social novel about American judiciary.
- play (Upside Down: or Philosophy in Petticoats), a satirization of socialism

1851 :
- short story (The Lake Gun)
- (New York: or The Towns of Manhattan) is an unfinished work on the history of the city of New York.

Famous American writer of the early 19th century, author of adventure novels about the first settlers and Indians. His most famous work is the novel The last of the magicans».

James Fenimore Cooper/ James Fenimore Cooper was born September 15, 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey, the son of a US Congressman William Cooper/ William Cooper and Elizabeth Fenimore/ Elizabeth Fenimore. He was the eleventh of twelve children. One of his ancestors came to the New World from the English city of Straitford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. Shortly after the birth of James, the family moved to Cooperstown, a town founded by his father on the shores of Lake Otsego.

At the age of 13 James Fenimore Cooper enrolled at Yale, but was expelled three years later due to a prank by a fellow student.

In 1806, 17-year-old Cooper decided to become a sailor and signed up on a merchant ship. During the voyage, he managed to visit the coasts of England and Spain. By 1811 he had become midshipman in the fledgling US Navy. The order to award him an officer's rank was signed by future US President Thomas Jefferson. After several campaigns, Cooper returned to his native state of New York, where he participated in the construction of a schooner intended for the war with England. In free time James Fenimore Cooper often wandered through the forests and explored the surroundings of the lake, where the Indians lived.

At the age of 20 James Fenimore Cooper received an inheritance from his father.

In 1820, his wife argued with Cooper whether he could write a better book than the one she was reading. In reply James Fenimore Cooper wrote a novel Precaution and published it under a pseudonym. In 1823 he wrote " Pioneers where the Delaware chief Chingachgook first appeared. In 1826, he became the protagonist of James Fenimore Cooper's most famous novel, Last of the Mohicans". It was one of the most popular novels in 19th century America.

That same year, Cooper moved his family to Europe, where he hoped to earn more income from books and give his children a good education. During this period, he began to write novels with a maritime theme: " Red Corsair" and " sea sorceress". In Paris, he also wrote political articles for French magazines in which he defended his homeland. European history inspired him to write the novel " Bravo, or in Venice».

In 1833, the Coopers returned to the United States and restored the estate in Cooperstown, built by the writer's father.

In 1839 James Fenimore Cooper completed his work "History of the US Navy", for which he collected materials for 14 years.

In 1840 Cooper returned to the adventure genre and wrote the novel Pathfinder, or On the Shores of Ontario". A year later, another famous novel came out James Fenimore Cooper « St. John's wort, or the First Warpath».

In 1847 he wrote the utopia " Crater about US history. His latest book New trends published in 1850.

Personal life of James Fenimore Cooper / James Fenimore Cooper

In 1811 James Fenimore Cooper married a wealthy heiress Susan Auguste de Lancey/ Susan Augusta de Lancey. The couple had seven children, two of whom died in infancy.

James' daughter Susan Fenimore Cooper became a writer and active suffragist. The writer became and his great-great-grandson Paul Fenimore Cooper/ Paul Fenimore Cooper.

Death of James Fenimore Cooper

The writer died on September 14, 1851 from dropsy, on the eve of his 62nd birthday. His wife survived him by several months.

In 1992, a film was made based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Magicans, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The film won an Oscar for Best Sound and grossed over $75 million at the box office.

James Fenimore Cooper is an American novelist, the first writer of the New World, whose work was recognized by the Old World and became a powerful stimulus for the further development of the American novel.