James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper was born in 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey, and grew up in Cooperstown, New York, a frontier settlement founded by his father, William Cooper, a land developer and congressman. He was expelled from Yale College for misbehavior and went to sea as a sailor, then served as a midshipman in the United States Navy. After marrying Susan DeLancey in 1811 he lived as a gentleman farmer. According to family accounts, he began writing after telling his wife he could write a better novel than the one he was reading. His second novel, The Spy (1821), set in the American Revolution, was a success. The Pioneers (1823) introduced the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, also called Hawkeye or Leatherstocking, who reappears in four more novels, including The Last of the Mohicans (1826), set during the French and Indian War, and The Prairie. He also wrote sea novels and a history of the navy. Cooper lived in Europe for several years and later returned to Cooperstown, where he died in 1851.

James Fenimore Cooper is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Descended from a Quaker family. Source: Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography (via Wikisource)