Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief

by James Fenimore Cooper

Overview

Book Excerpt: nt myself, thelaws of nature have not permitted me to escape from the influence ofthis common rule. The earliest accounts I possess of my progenitorsrepresent them as a goodly growth of the Linum Usitatissimum, dividedinto a thousand cotemporaneous plants, singularly well conditioned, andremarkable for an equality that renders the production valuable. In thisparticular, then, I may be said to enjoy a precedency over theBourbons, themselves, who now govern no less than four differentstates of Europe, and who have sat on thrones these thousand years.{Linum Usitatissimum = Linum usitatissimum (Cooper's capitalizationvaries) is the botanical name for the variety of flax from which linen ismade}While our family has followed the general human law in the matter justmentioned, it forms a marked exception to the rule that so absolutelycontrols all of white blood, on this continent, in what relates toimmigration and territorial origin. When the American enters on thehistory of his ancestors, he isRead More

Product Details

BN ID:	2940000735459
Publisher:	B&R Samizdat Express
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	365 KB

About the Author

The creator of two genres that became staples of American literature — the sea romance and the frontier adventure — James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was born in New Jersey, raised in the wilderness of New York, and spent five years at sea before embarking on his successful writing career. Among Cooper’s many novels, his best-known books are the five "Leatherstocking" tales — including The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans — each featuring the fictional hero Natty Bumppo.

Date of Birth:

September 15, 1789

Date of Death:

September 14, 1851

Place of Birth:

Burlington, New Jersey

Place of Death:

Cooperstown, New York

Education:

Yale University (expelled in 1805)