Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

(b. Burlington, N.J., 15 September 1789; d. Cooperstown, N.Y., 14 September 1851) He was raised on his father's large estate at Cooperstown, N.Y., an area that served as the setting for many of his historical novels. After being expelled from Yale for a student prank, he served as a navy midshipman (1808–10), and then became a gentleman farmer. After writing his first novel, Precaution , in 1820, he produced his first commercial success, The Spy (1821). In 1823 he authored The Pioneers , first of his “Leatherstocking” series about Natty Bumppo (“Hawkeye”), who later appeared in The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deerslayer (1841). Cooper was the first American who succeeded in making a living primarily as a novelist. ... log in or subscribe to read full text