Cooper was raised in the town which his father had settled. At the age of thirteen he entered
Yale, but was expelled two years later for disciplinary reasons. He served in the merchant
marine and the U.S. Navy, where he spent five years, and reached the rank of Midshipman. In
1811, he returned to the family home in Cooperstown with his new bride. Taking to writing,
his first novel in 1820, Precaution, was a failure. Persevering, his second novel, The Spy (1821),
brought him widespread recognition. From 1826, he travelled Europe with his family, returning
to Cooperstown in 1833. His best known work is a series entitled The Leatherstocking Tales,
which consists of The Pioneers (1823), The Last Of The Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The
Pathfinder (1840) and The Deerslayer (1841). Among his many other works are The Pilot (1823)
and the Red Rover (1827), both sea adventures, and a number of more scholarly works including
History of the Navy of the United States (1839). |
