James Fenimore Cooper

[Werner]

In the first half of the 19th century, James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was one of America's most prominent and widely read novelists, not only in the U.S,, but abroad. Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo, and (in the early 20th century) D. H. Lawrence were among the European authors who greatly admired him. A writer of the Romantic school, he wrote primarily historical fiction (he was often called "the American Scott," though he disliked the comparison), but also wrote fiction set in his own lifetime, and a lot of serious nonfiction.

Though he was actually born in New Jersey, Cooper was raised, from the time that he was a year old, in the upstate New York frontier town of Cooperstown, founded by his wealthy father, and returned there to live in his older years. Cooperstown was the model for the community in his novel The Pioneers, and New York's history provides the grist and setting for much of his fiction. He served from 1806-1810 in the U.S. Navy, rising from common sailor to midshipman. This provided the basis for the large number of sea stories he would later write; and one of his most significant nonfiction works is the History of the Navy of the United States of America.

I've read six Cooper novels (a couple of them twice), starting as a kid, and have reviewed five. These include his second --and first really successful-- novel, The Spy (my review is here, if anyone's interested: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). They also include his best-known works, the five novels of the Leatherstocking Tales series: (https://www.goodreads.com/series/5548... . (I can link to my reviews of four of these on request.) This reading only scratches the surface of the Cooper corpus (and I do hope eventually to read more!), but it gives me enough of a basis to count him as one of my personal favorite writers.

[Werner]

For more information on Cooper, check out his Wikipedia entry at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_F... .

[Werner]

Jt wrote: "i adored Last of the Mohicans. the film was incredible too."

I haven't seen the 1992 film adaptation starring Daniel Day Lewis (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104691/ ), but from reviews and summaries of it that I've read, I know that it doesn't follow the book very closely. (That's true of a LOT of Hollywood adaptations of classics!) But the 1971 BBC miniseries adaptation (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066678/ ) is outstanding, IMO, and very much in their tradition of quality, faithful classic adaptations.

[Werner]

Jt wrote: "i don't why Hollywood ruins the classic feel of these timeless novels."

That's a mystery to me, too. :-(

[Werner]

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences by Mark Twain is a roughly 16-page essay rather than a book; but I read it by itself (in vol. 22 of the 1899 edition of the author's collected works by Harper and Brothers, which Twain authorized during his lifetime), as background reading for my 2012 reread of The Last of the Mohicans. My retrospective one-star review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .

[Patrick]

That essay is Twain at his snarkiest, and hardly at his best.

I am on my sixth Cooper novel, The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, after having read The Spy, Wyandotté, The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, and The Pilot. I hope to get a lot more done now, in my retirement. I think Lionel Lincoln, which has an iffy reputation, will be next; I like the Revolutionary War theme, and am always drawn to “the dismissed”.

Donald A. Ringe’s book on Cooper in the Twayne US Authors Series, which I first devoured as a kid, is excellent, and so are the website and publications of the James Fenimore Cooper Society.

[Werner]

Patrick wrote: "Donald A. Ringe’s book on Cooper in the Twayne US Authors Series, which I first devoured as a kid, is excellent, and so are the website and publications of the James Fenimore Cooper Society."

Thanks for that info, Patrick! The Bluefield Univ. library, where I work, has the Ringe book; I haven't read it myself, but I know that series is a solid resource (as are the companion ones for British and world authors).

All of the Leatherstocking novels have my recommendation! I haven't read Wyandotte or The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea; but The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish is on my to-read shelf, as are The Bravo: A Tale, The Wing-and-Wing, and Satanstoe, or the Littlepage Manuscripts: A Tale of the Colony.

[Patrick]

Yes, the Twayne books are generally very good and incredibly useful.

Ringe is an insightful critic. Of course there are JFC novels that he has little praise for; but contrarian that I am, those are ones, like Lionel Lincoln and Mercedes of Castile, that I really want to read. He highly recommends both Wyandotté and The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, and I can heartily agree!