The Spy

by James Fenimore Cooper

Overview

The Spy: a Tale of the Neutral Ground is a novel by American writer James Fenimore Cooper. His second novel, it was published in 1821 by Wiley & Halsted. The plot is set during the American Revolution and was inspired in part by the family friend John Jay. The Spy was successful and began Cooper's reputation as a popular and important American writer.

The novel was successful, and its success came at a critical time in Cooper's life. He was straining to maintain his gentlemanly lifestyle after the collapse of his family fortune, and he wrote his first two novels to test the viability of income from authorship. The original print run of 1000 copies sold out in the first month, with at least 600 copies sold within a year, which earned him royalties of $4000. Years later, in 1831, Cooper gave credit for the book's success on the "love of country" among his American readers. The Literary World later reflected that the book was among the first to celebrate the United States in such a way: "Before 'The Spy' we believe there is scarcely to be found a book from an American pen, in which there is an attempt to delineate American character or scenery, or which selects the soil of the United States as the field of its story". A review in the North American Review noted the book "laid the foundations of American romance".

The book's central character, Harvey Birch, prefigures many of the qualities that Cooper would use in his more famous character, Natty Bumppo, who stars in Cooper's series of books known as Leatherstocking Tales. Birch is an adventurer who resists marrying and traditional society to withdraw into his own natural, moral world.

The Spy was a direct influence on John Neal, who published his own Revolutionary War historical fiction novel, Seventy-Six, two years later in 1823 after he had received the requested feedback on the manuscript from Cooper. Neal's novel provided a stark contrast to Cooper's work in its use of American colloquial language, profanity, and conversational narration and earned him a reputation as Cooper's chief rival as leading American author. (wikipedia.org)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781636378282
Publisher:	Bibliotech Press
Publication date:	05/10/2022
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1857) was an American author active during the first half of the 19th century. Though his most popular work includes historical romance fiction centered around pioneer and Native American life, Cooper also wrote works of nonfiction and explored social, political and historical themes in hopes of eliminating the European prejudice against Americans and nurturing original art and culture in America.

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)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Historical Introduction	xiii
	To James Aitchison [1821]	1
	Preface [1821]	2
	Preface to the Second Edition [1822]	6
	To James Aitchison [1822]	8
	Preface to the Third Edition [1822]	9
	Introduction [1831]	12
	Introduction [1849]	17
	The Spy	22
	Explanatory Notes	425
	Textual Commentary	435
	Textual Notes	458
	Emendations	460
	Rejected Readings	546
	Word-Division	550

Editorial Reviews

Written in 1821, this historical novel is Cooper's paean to the Revolutionary War, as protagonist Harry Birch finds himself wrongly accused of selling vital information to the British. The book incorporates several real characters, including George Washington.

Library Journal