JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (1789-1851) was born in New Jersey, spent his youth partly on the family estate at Cooperstown on Otsego Lake (NY), partly in the merchant marine (after dismissal for Yale), partly in the American navy. He then settled down as a country proprietor and writer of novels. His second book "The Spy" (1821), a tale of the American Revolution, brought him into prominence. "The Pioneers" (1823) was the first of his best-known group of novels, "Leather-Stocking Tales", called after the deerskin leggings of their hero, pioneer scout Natty Bumppo, alias Deerslayer, Pathfinder or Hawkeye. The sequels were "The last of the Mohicans" (1826), "The Prairie" (1827), "The Pathfinder" (1840) and "The Deerslayer"(1841). They deal with adventures of the frontier and give a vivid picture of American Indian and pioneer life.
