James Fenimore Cooper Totally Explained

Everything about James Fenimore Cooper totally explained

James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo. Among his most famous works is the novel The Last of the Mohicans, which many consider to be his masterpiece.

Literary career

Cooper settled in Scarsdale, Westchester County, New York and anonymously published his first book, Precaution (1820). He soon issued several others: The Spy (1821); (1823), the first of the Leatherstocking series; and The Pilot (1824); Lionel Lincoln (1825) ; Last of the Mohicans (1826), a book that's considered by many to be Cooper's masterpiece. The book was written in a second-story storefront-apartment in Warrensburg, New York, just north of where most of the book's plot takes place. Leaving America for Europe Cooper published in Paris The Prairie (1826) and The Red Rover (1828).
These novels were succeeded by: The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish (1829); by The Notions of a Traveling Bachelor (1828); and by The Waterwitch (1830), one of his many sea-stories. In 1830 he entered the lists as a party writer; in a series of letters to the National, a Parisian journal, he defended the United States against a string of charges brought against them by the Revue Britannique. For the rest of his life he continued skirmishing in print, sometimes for the national interest, sometimes for that of the individual, and not infrequently for both at once.
This opportunity to make a political confession of faith appears not only to have fortified him in his own convictions, but to have inspired him with the idea of elucidating them for the public through the medium of his art. His next three novels, The Bravo (1831), The Heidenmauer (1832) and The Headsman: or the Abbaye of Vigneron (1833), were expressions of Cooper's republican convictions. The Bravo depicted Venice as a place where a ruthless oligarchy lurks behind the mask of the "serene republic." All were widely read on both sides of the Atlantic, though The Bravo was a critical failure in the United States.(External Link

) In 1833 Cooper returned to America and immediately published A Letter to My Countrymen, in which he gave his own version of the controversy in which he'd been engaged and sharply censured his compatriots for their share in it. This attack he followed up with The Monikins (1835) and The American Democrat (1835); with several sets of notes on his travels and experiences in Europe, among which may be remarked his England (1837), in three volumes, and with Homeward Bound and Home as Found (1838), notable as containing a highly idealized portrait of himself.
All these books tended to increase the ill feeling between author and public; the Whig press was virulent and scandalous in its comments, and Cooper plunged into a series of actions for libel. Victorious in all of them, he returned to his old occupation with something of his original vigor and success. A History of the Navy of the United States (1839), supplemented (1846) by a set of Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers, was succeeded by The Pathfinder (1840), a good "Leatherstocking" novel; by Mercedes of Castile (1840); The Deerslayer (1841); by The Two Admirals and by Wing and Wing (1842); by Wyandotte, The History of a Pocket Handkerchief, and Ned Myers (1843); and by Afloat and Ashore, or the Adventures of Miles Wallingford (1844).

Later life

He turned again from pure fiction to the combination of art and controversy in which he'd achieved distinction, and in the two Littlepage Manuscripts (1845—1846) he wrote with a great deal of vigour. His next novel was The Crater, or Vulcan's Peak (1847), in which he attempted to introduce supernatural machinery; and this was succeeded by Oak Openings, The Two Admirals, and Jack Tier (1848), the latter a curious rifacimento of The Red Rover; by The Sea Lions (1849); and finally by The Ways of the Hour (1850), another title with a purpose, and his last completed novel.
Cooper spent the last years of his life in Cooperstown, New York (named for his father). He died of dropsy on September 14, 1851, a day before his 62nd birthday - and a statue was later erected in his honour.

Legacy and criticism

Cooper was certainly one of the most popular 19th century American authors. Cooper's work was admired greatly throughout the world. While on his death bed, the Austrian composer Franz Schubert became an avid reader of Cooper's novels. His stories have been translated into nearly all the languages of Europe and into some of those of Asia. Balzac admired him greatly, but with discrimination; Though many scholars dispute Cooper being classified as a Romantic (he predates the movement), Victor Hugo pronounced him greater than the great master of modern romance, and this verdict was echoed by a multitude of less famous readers, who were satisfied with no title for their favorite less than that of “the American Scott.” As a satirist and observer he's simply the “Cooper who's written six volumes to prove he's as good as a Lord” of Lowell's clever portrait; his enormous vanity and his irritability find vent in a sort of dull violence, which is exceedingly tiresome. He was most memorably criticized by Mark Twain whose vicious and amusing "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences"

is still read widely in academic circles.
Cooper was criticized heavily for his depiction of women characters in his work. Contemporary critic James Russell Lowell referred to it poetically: "...the women he draws from one model don't vary, / All sappy as maples and flat as a prairie."

Cooper's writings

Date	Title: Subtitle	Genre	Topic, Location, Period
1820	Precaution (External Link)	novel	, 1813-1814
1821	(External Link)	novel	, 1778
1823	The Pioneers: or The Sources of the Susquehanna	novel	,, 1793-1794,
1823	Tales for Fifteen: or Imagination and Heart (External Link)	2 short stories	written under the pseudonym: ""
1824	(External Link)	novel	, England, 1780
1825	Lionel Lincoln: or The Leaguer of Boston	novel	,, 1775-1781
1826	The Last of the Mohicans: A narrative of 1757 (External Link)	novel	,, &, 1757
1827	The Prairie (External Link)	novel	,, 1805
1828	The Red Rover: A Tale (External Link)	novel	&, pirates, 1759
1828	Notions of the Americans: Picked up by a Travelling Bachelor	non-fiction	America for European readers
1829	The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish: A Tale (External Link)	novel	Western Connecticut, Puritans and Indians, 1660-1676
1830	The Water-Witch: or the Skimmer of the Seas (External Link)	novel	New York, smugglers, 1713
1830	Letter to General Lafayette	politics	France vs. US, cost of government
1831	The Bravo: A Tale (External Link)	novel	, 18th century
1832	The Heidenmauer: or, The Benedictines, A Legend of the Rhine	novel	German Rhineland, 16th century
1832	No Steamboats	short story
1833	(External Link)	novel	Geneva, Switzerland, & Alps, 18th century
1834	A Letter to His Countrymen	politics	Why Cooper temporarily stopped writing
1835	The Monikins (External Link)	novel	, aristocratic monkeys. 1830s
1836	The Eclipse (External Link)	memoir	in 1806
1836	(Sketches of Switzerland)	travel	Hiking in Switzerland, 1828
1836	(Sketches of Switzerland, Part Second)	travel	Travels France, Rhineland & Switzerland, 1832
1836	A Residence in France: With an Excursion Up the Rhine, and a Second Visit to Switzerland (External Link)	travel
1837		travel	Living, travelling in France, 1826-1828
1837		travel	Travels in England, 1826, 1828, 1833
1838		travel	Living, travelling in Italy, 1828-1830
1838	The American Democrat : or Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America	non-fiction	US society and government
1838	The Chronicles of Cooperstown	history	Local history of
1838	Homeward Bound: or The Chase: A Tale of the Sea (External Link)	novel	Atlantic Ocean & North African coast, 1835
1838		novel	Eve Effingham, New York City & Otsego County, New York, 1835
1839	The History of the Navy of the United States of America	history	US Naval history to date
1839	Old Ironsides (External Link)	history	History of the Frigate, 1st pub. 1853
1840	The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea (External Link)	novel	, Western New York, 1759
1840	Mercedes of Castile: or, The Voyage to Cathay	novel	in, 1490s
1841	The Deerslayer: or The First Warpath	novel	, 1740-1745
1842	The Two Admirals	novel	England &,, 1745
1842	The Wing-and-Wing: le Le Feu-Follet (External Link) (Jack o Lantern)	novel	Italian coast, Napoleonic Wars, 1745
1843	Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief (External Link), also published as Le Mouchoir: An Autobiographical Romance The French Governess: or The Embroidered Handkerchief Die franzosischer Erzieheren: oder das gestickte Taschentuch	novelette	Social satire, France & New York, 1830s
1843	Richard Dale
1843	Wyandotte: or The Hutted Knoll. A Tale (External Link) (External Link)	novel	of, 1763-1776
1843	Ned Myers: or Life before the Mast (External Link)	biography	of Cooper's shipmate who survived an 1813 sinking of a US sloop of war in a storm
1844	Afloat and Ashore: or The Adventures of Miles Wallingford. A Sea Tale (External Link)	novel	& worldwide, 1795-1805
1844	Miles Wallingford: Sequel to Afloat and Ashore (External Link)	novel	& worldwide, 1795-1805
1844	Proceedings of the Naval Court-Martial in the Case of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, &c.
1845	Satanstoe: or The Littlepage Manuscripts, a Tale of the Colony	novel	New York City, Westchester County, Albany, Adirondacks, 1758
1845	The Chainbearer; or, The Littlepage Manuscripts	novel	Westchester County, Adirondacks, 1780s (next generation)
1846	The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin: Being the Conclusion of the Littlepage Manuscripts	novel	Anti-rent wars, Adirondacks, 1845
1846	Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers	biography
1847	The Crater; or, Vulcan's Peak: A Tale of the Pacific (External Link) (Mark's Reef)	novel	Philadelphia, Bristol (PA), & deserted Pacific island, early 1800s
1848	Jack Tier: or the Florida Reefs (External Link) a.k.a. Captain Spike: or The Islets of the Gulf	novel	Florida Keys, Mexican War, 1846
1848	The Oak Openings: or the Bee-Hunter (External Link)	novel	Kalamazoo River, Michigan, War of 1812
1849	The Sea Lions: The Lost Sealers (External Link)	novel	Long Island & Antarctica, 1819-1820
1850	The Ways of the Hour	novel	"Dukes County, New York," murder/courtroom mystery novel, legal corruption, women's rights, 1846
1850	Upside Down: or Philosophy in Petticoats	play	satirization of
1851	The Lake Gun	short story	in New York, political satire based on folklore
1851	(External Link)	history	Unfinished, history of New York City, 1st pub. 1864

Sources for this table include:

http://www.oneonta.edu/external/cooper/bibliography/works.html

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jfcooper.htm

http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/enl310/cooper.htm

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/c#a483Further Information

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