The Deerslayer (Barnes & Noble Classics) - James Fenimore Cooper [1]
Cooper was educated by private tutors and at Yale, where he enrolled in 1803; he was expelled in 1805 after setting off an explosion that blew off another student’s dormitory door. As a midshipman in the U.S. Navy, he served at an isolated post on Lake Ontario and in a relatively leisurely assignment in New York City, where he met his future wife, Susan Augusta De Lancey, daughter of a wealthy family. In 1811 he resigned his commission to marry her.
According to family lore, Cooper fell into writing on a dare: One evening he threw down a novel in disgust, saying he could write a better book himself; when Susan challenged him and reminded him that he could barely stand to write a letter, Cooper wrote his first novel, Precaution, published in 1820. Encouraged by favorable reviews, Cooper wrote other books in quick succession and was soon regarded as a major voice in America’s emerging literary tradition. He eventually published thirty-two novels and was the first American to make a living as a professional novelist. Natty Bumppo, who appears in The Deerslayer and the four other Leatherstocking Tales that Cooper published between 1823 and 1841, became one of America’s favorite fictional heroes. Cooper and his family lived in Europe for seven years but returned to America in 1833. Eventually settling in Cooperstown, Cooper remained on the American literary scene as a prolific writer of political tracts, naval histories, and works of fiction. He died in Cooperstown on September 14, 1851.
THE WORLD OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER AND THE DEERSLAYER
1789 The twelfth of thirteen children, James Cooper is born on September 15 to Judge William Cooper and Elizabeth Fenimore Cooper in Burlington, New Jersey. George Washington is inaugurated president of the United States.
1790 The Coopers move to the frontier country of upstate New York, where William had founded Cooperstown a few years earlier. In his novels, James will repeatedly draw on his early frontier experiences.
1803 James Fenimore Cooper enters Yale.
1805 Cooper is expelled from Yale for blowing off a fellow student’s door with gunpowder.
1806 Cooper works as a sailor on the Stirling, a merchant vessel. His travels take him to Spain and England.
1808 Cooper joins the Navy, making Atlantic passages and serving at an isolated post on Lake Ontario.
1811 Cooper marries Susan Augusta De Lancey, the daughter of a wealthy family in Westchester County, New York. The couple, plagued by financial troubles for the next several years, moves to various towns in New York State before buying a country home near Scarsdale, where they settle with their seven children.
1812 The United States declares war on Great Britain.
1814 British troops set fire to Washington, D.C. Francis Scott Key writes “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
1819 Washington Irving’s tale “Rip Van Winkle” appears.
1820 After accepting a challenge from his wife to write a book, Cooper pens Precaution, a novel of manners. The Missouri Compromise draws the line between free states and slave states.
1821 The Spy, a historical romance set during the American Revolution, is published, establishing Cooper as a major literary figure.
1823 Cooper publishes The Pioneers, the first of the five Leatherstocking Tales, which are set in the 1700s, both before and after the American Revolution, and tell the life of hunter, trapper, and scout Natty Bumppo, known as Leatherstocking. The books follow Natty through various periods of his life, but not in chronological order.
1826