title: James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales I; The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie (Library of America)
author:  James Fenimore Cooper 
description: <b>James Fenimore Cooper</b> (1789-1851) grew up at Otsego Hall, his father&rsquo;s manorial estate near Lake Otsego in upstate New York. Educated at Yale, he spent five years at sea, as a foremast hand and then as a midshipman in the navy. At thirty he was suddenly plunged into a literary career when his wife challenged his claim that he could write a better book that the English novel he was reading to her. The result was <b>Precaution</b> (1820), a novel of manners. His second book, <b>The Spy</b> (1821), was an immediate success, and with <b>The Pioneers</b> (1823) he began his series of Leatherstocking Tales. By 1826 when <b>The Last of the Mohicans</b> appeared, his standing as a major novelist was clearly established. From 1826 to 1833 Cooper and his family lived and traveled in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. Two of his most successful works, <b>The Prairie</b> and <b>The Red Rover</b>, were published in 1827. He returned to Otsego Hall in 1834, and after a series of relatively unsuccessful books of essays, travel sketches, and history, he returned to fiction &ndash; and to Leatherstocking &ndash; with <b>The Pathfinder</b> (1840) and <b>The Deerslayer</b> (1841). In his last decade he faced declining popularity brought on in part by his waspish attacks on critics and political opponents. Just before his death in 1851 an edition of his works led to a reappraisal of his fiction and somewhat restored his reputation as the first of American writers.
zlib_text: JAMES	FENIMORE	COOPER
  THE	LEATHERSTOCKING	TALES
  VOLUME	I
  The	Pioneers,	or	the	Sources	of	the	Susquehanna;	A	Descriptive	Tale
  The	Last	of	the	Mohicans;	A	Narrative	of	1757
  The	Prairie;	A	Tale
  Blake	Nevius,	editor
  THE	LIBRARY	OF	AMERICA
  
  Volume	compilation,	notes,	and	chronology	copyright	©	1985	by	Literary	Classics	of	the	United	States,
  Inc.,	New	York,	N.Y.
  All	rights	reserved.
  No	part	of	this	book	may	be	reproduced	commercially	by	offset-lithographic	or	equivalent	copying
  devices	without	the	permission	of	the	publisher.
  The	texts	of	The	Pioneers,	The	Last	of	the	Mohicans,	and	The	Prairie	are	copyright	©	1980,	1983,	and
  1984	by	the	State	University	of	New	York	Press.	All	rights	reserved.
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