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| James Fennimore Cooper (colored print after an image in Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 1872) |
James Fenimore Cooper made a living out of
getting people lost.
He
sent them into forests, across lakes, onto ships, and behind enemy lines. Once
they were there, he made sure someone dangerous was close behind. Readers
bought the books as fast as he could write them.
That
may sound ordinary now. In the 1820s, it was a big deal. Americans loved
novels, but most of the popular ones came from Europe. Cooper gave them
adventures that could happen right here, in places with American names and
American problems.
His
breakthrough novel was The Spy (1821). Its hero, Harvey Birch, was
a peddler doing secret work for George Washington. Birch had to let everyone
think he was a traitor, even when his own safety was on the line.
Readers
loved it.
Cooper followed with The Pioneers and
a character they’d want to see again: Natty Bumppo. Natty lived by his own
rules, knew his way through the woods, and had little patience for the settlers
filling them with fences.
Cooper
brought him back four more times.
The wildest ride was The Last of the Mohicans. Set during the French and Indian War, it throws Natty, Chingachgook, Uncas, and two sisters into a desperate journey through dangerous country. There’s hardly a chance to catch your breath before someone is chased, captured, or forced to take another risk.
Cooper
knew readers would follow Natty anywhere. In The Prairie, he sent
an older Natty west. In The Pathfinder and The
Deerslayer, he went back to Natty’s younger days. The five books became
known as the Leatherstocking Tales, though Cooper hadn’t planned them
out from beginning to end.
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| Natty Bumpo tracking a deer |
And when he’d had enough of the woods, Cooper went to sea. He’d sailed as a young man, so he knew that a ship was the perfect place to put people in trouble. There’s plenty to fear when a storm rolls in and nobody can step off.
His
books weren’t neat or quiet.
People
argued. Plans failed. Sometimes his characters talked so long you wanted to
shove them out the door. Then he’d give them a reason to run, and you’d
remember why you were still reading.
He
wasn’t always right about the people or the places he described, either. His
Native characters were shaped by the prejudices of his day. And the title The
Last of the Mohicans gets it all wrong: the Mohican people are still
here. Their descendants include the Stockbridge-Munsee Community.
What
Cooper got right was the excitement of a story told close to home. He looked at
a lake, a stretch of woods, or a road through New York and saw all the trouble
a person could get into there. He gave American readers a hero with dirt on his
boots and a habit of leaving town just before it caught up with him.
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| Natty Bumpo, Uncas, and Chingachgook outside Fort William Henry |
James Fennimore Cooper died in 1851. But Natty Bumppo kept going. You can spot traces of him in generations of westerns and adventure stories: the loner who knows the land, sees danger first, and would rather sleep outside than listen to one more town meeting.
Cooper
knew America had rough edges. He put his characters against them, then let the
readers come along for the ride.
Before you go...
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