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James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) US citizen, native of Burlington, creator of exciting novels and adventure prose. Known for his work “The Last of the Mohicans” (1826).
He pioneered a new genre of “frontier romance,” or frontier romance. He also penned the first historical novels in the United States with a description of adventures. The author’s literary works are still sold in antique bookstores, on the websites of Internet publishing houses.
Biography of James Fenimore Cooper
James’s father was active in politics, was a member of the US Congress, a judge. He bore the name of William Cooper, which was rooted in the noble family of the British and Swedes. The wealth and influence of his father allowed him to found the settlement of Cooperstown, which eventually became a city.
During his studies at school, James Cooper did not differ in exemplary behavior, he joked a lot, including over teachers. So, he once brought a live donkey to class. Soon he was kicked out of school, and later his father gave him to be raised as a sailor.
However, Cooper passed the exams and entered Yale’s higher education institution. He studied there for only one year, then went to serve in the navy as a midshipman, where he served for four years from 1806. He was also engaged in the fact that on Lake Ontario he took an active part in the construction of a warship.
This is how the novel “Pathfinder” appeared, which describes in detail the most picturesque landscapes of the coastal regions of this reservoir. In 1811, he ties the knot with the Frenchwoman Susan Auguste Delancey, who has always sympathized with the British in the American struggle for independence.
It is thanks to her influence on Cooper that the British and the events of those historical years are so vividly reflected in the first works of the writer, very respectfully and not condemned. Subsequently, it was the wife who insisted that James leave the naval service.
After a short time, his father dies of a heart attack, and James remains the wealthy heir to the entire fortune.
According to legend, Cooper wrote his first work in an argument with his wife. Once they were spending time reading a simple English novel, and James said that he himself could write a novel as well. Susan took him at his word. This is how Precaution appeared, published in 1820.
Cooper’s work
Interestingly, James Fenimore Cooper hid his authorship of the novel “Precaution”, since the American authorities were not so loyal to the British government. But English critics also rejected the work, since the events did not fully correspond to the actual history of England.
The novelism for the United States in Cooper’s subsequent works was much better than his pilot novel. Thus, the second well-known work “Spy” came out a year after “Precaution” and breathed devotion to the motherland and education of youth in the spirit of patriotism.
The work was greeted with great enthusiasm by American and European readers. The beginning of a new genre in the literature of the United States of America was laid.
This was followed by texts with a detailed and fascinating description of the nature of America, its history. Cooper’s well-deserved success was due to the unusual theme of the works, the third part of which is devoted to sea voyages.
Cooper’s European admirers, his works gave more vivid emotions and experiences associated with the struggle for the independence of the American people than the events of those times in the Old World.
Works
Since 1823, for eighteen years, his works have been published one after another:
- “Pioneers”;
- “Lincoln, or the Siege of Boston”;
- “The Last of the Mohicans”;
- “Steppes”;
- “Pathfinder”;
- “Deer Hunter”.
In these works, the author presented some European states directly participating in internecine wars and having drawn virtually all Indian tribes into strife.
In recent years, after many years in the Old World, the writer returned to America and did not recognize it. Life has changed a lot. E. Jackson appeared, conducting a broad democratization of the frontier novel, which Cooper did not like.
He was against these vulgar ideas. But, he continued to write in his style, which now seemed neutral and did not cause the previous excitement among fans of the historical novel.
In the 30s of the nineteenth century, he was persecuted by representatives of American publications and moved to Cooperstown, where he died in September 1851 from cirrhosis of the liver. His “History of New York” remained unfinished.
Video
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