Cooper, James Fenimore (1789–1851)

US writer, considered the first great US novelist. He wrote some 50 novels, mostly about the frontier, wilderness life, and the sea, first becoming popular with The Spy (1821). He is best remembered for his series of Leatherstocking Tales, focusing on the frontier hero Natty Bumppo and the American Indians before and after the American Revolution; they include The Last of the Mohicans (1826). Still popular as adventures, his novels have been reappraised for their treatment of social and moral issues in the settling of the American frontier.

Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey, and grew up on the family frontier settlement of Cooperstown, New York State. He was educated in Albany and at Yale University. After being expelled from Yale he travelled as an apprentice sailor to Europe. In 1811 he married the wealthy Susan DeLancey and became a gentleman farmer, but economic problems encouraged him to write. Influenced by the historical novels of Walter Scott, he wrote The Spy and then moved to New York City, where he became a member of the Knickerbocker Group of writers. Works from this period include the first two ‘Leatherstocking’ novels and other novels, including the sea-romance The Pilot (1823).

In 1826 Cooper went to Paris where he continued to write novels and books on American society, including Notions of the Americans (1828), supporting US democracy. Although he wrote novels about European popular movements, such as The Bravo (1831), he increasingly criticized American mob-politics, and his return to the USA in 1833 brought attacks in the US press. He wrote Gleanings in Europe (1837–38) and Homeward Bound and Home As Found (1838), and further novels, including the ‘Littlepage’ trilogy: Satanstoe (1845), The Chainbearer (1845), and The Redskins (1846). Cooper grew more depressed about the progress of America, wrote polemic and satire, and engaged in frequent lawsuits with the Whig press. The American Democrat (1838) expresses his defence of a cultivated democracy.