James Fenimore Cooper
A Life
Nick Louras
This is
a fascinating look at America's first novelist. A man who brought us
the western genre as well as the genre of sea sagas. He is probably
best known for his series The Leatherstocking Tales which included
some of his most famous works that have become enduring classics, The
Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, The Pathfinders and
The Deerslayer. Cooper was a
prolific writer often drawing on the early years he spent in the vast
frontier of what would become upstate New York during his childhood.
His sea tales seem to draw on his times as a merchant sailor and
during a stint in the U.S. Navy.
While he had success with some of his works he was not always
appreciated. He often courted controversy both at home and abroad,
where his family spent seven years during the mid 1800's. Cooper
appears to have been an extremely prickly man, if not with his family
then certainly with his critics. In some ways he appears to have been
his own worst enemy as he found it extremely hard to let bygones be
bygones. He was nevertheless, an important American figure and this
work is a thorough examination not only of his life but the history
of the time and the role he played in it. The book is good at
capturing the vast changes that occurred during his lifetime. Despite
the changes around him he seemed continually drawn to an early
America landscape, one where the frontier hadn't quite given way to
civilization.
The author does a good job portraying Cooper as a complex man of his
time. It's well written, thoroughly covering Cooper's fictional
works, political writings and views in a lively way that will be
appreciated by both scholars and layman alike. And while it doesn't
necessarily distract from the work itself, it would have been nice to
have an author profile at either the beginning or end of the book.
Thanks to Chronos Books for allowing me to read this book in exchange
for an honest review.
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