James F. Cooper letters

1827-1836

James Fenimore Cooper (born 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey) was an American novelist, essayist, and writer of historical works. He grew up in Cooperstown, New York, and attended Yale from 1803 to 1805. After he was kicked out of Yale for pulling a prank, Cooper joined the Navy as a midshipman.

Cooper married Susan Augusta de Lancey in 1811. He wrote his first novel Precaution (1820), an imitation of English domestic novels after Susan challenged him to do so.

Cooper lived in New York City from 1822 to 1826 and began writing his well-known series of novels, the Leatherstocking Tales. The series, which includes The Last of the Mohicans (1826), focuses on the lives of colonial and Indigenous characters. The novels contributed to the formation of the American frontier myth. In 1824, Cooper founded the Bread and Cheese Club, a social and cultural group of writers, artists, editors, scholars, merchants, politicians, and lawyers focused on creating a distinctly American culture. Members of the club included poet William Cullen Bryant, writer Washington Irving, and painter and inventor Samuel Morse.

The Cooper family moved to Paris, France in 1826 and lived in various European countries until 1833. While the family was in Paris, Cooper started writing his sea novels, including The Red Rover (1827), which influenced American writer Herman Melville and Polish British writer Joseph Conrad.

Upon his return to New York in 1833, Cooper continued to pen his Leatherstocking Tales and sea novels. He also wrote essays and historical works about the United States Navy and European and American politics.

Cooper died in Cooperstown, New York in 1851.