The Cooper Bookshelf

A series of short articles from The Freeman's Journal, introducing
Cooper's novels and other works to readers for pleasure in the 21st century,
by Hugh C. MacDougall, James Fenimore Cooper Society

It is followed by a second series, also from The Freeman's Journal, describing in similar format films, operas, and other works based on Cooper's novels.

The Freeman's Journal
Cooperstown, New York,
Founded 1808 -- James Fenimore Cooper's own favorite newspaper.

Published by The Otsego Templeton Publishing Company, Inc., 59 Pioneer Street, P.O. Box 890, Cooperstown, NY 13326. E-mail: fjournal@telnet.net

© 2001, 2002, 2003 by The Freeman's Journal, and placed on-line with its kind permission
[may be downloaded and reproduced for personal or instructional use, or by libraries]

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-- It is suggested that readers who haven't read much Cooper look at Reading Cooper for Pleasure, which is intended to enhance their enjoyment of Cooperstown's great 19th century author.
-- For further information on Cooperstown see the Cooperstown page.

The Cooper Bookshelf
Table of Contents

Articles will be added approximately one week after they appear in The Freeman's Journal

Cooper on Film

In this section we review, sometimes tongue in cheek, twenty films and television shows based (more or less) on novels by James Fenimore Cooper. Generally speaking, we have only commented on films we have actually seen

Miscellaneous

In this section we review Cooper in Classics Illustrated Comics, Cooper in Opera, and major works by his daughter, Susan Fenimore Cooper (1813-1894).

Series Introduction

Between 1820 and 1850, James Fenimore Cooper wrote about fifty books (32 of them novels), more than half of them written at his desk here in Cooperstown. His better known books remain in print in every major language and throughout the world. Many others are still well worth the effort to find and read. This series will discuss one of Cooper's books each week, in the order that he wrote them. For each work we will describe the background of its creation; what it is about (without "giving away" the whole plot); its significance; and how to find a copy. Put together, the series will provide a capsule history of Cooper as a writer and as a thinker.

In similar fashion, we shall review films, operas, and other adaptations of Cooper's works. We shall not seek to be exhaustive, but cover primarily versions that we have seen and which are more or less available to the public in some form. We shall also briefly review the writings of Cooper's literary daughter, Susan Fenimore Cooper (1813-1894).

Our principal purpose, however, is to interest you in reading Cooper.

1. Precaution. Novel (1820). [From the The Freeman's Journal, June 22, 2001.]

Background: The 31 year-old James Fenimore Cooper was living with his wife and four small children in Westchester County. Although he put up a brave front, he was almost broke. The fortune left him by his father William Cooper had evaporated. One day, while reading an English novel aloud to his family, Cooper threw it aside and exclaimed "I could write a better book than this, myself!" Susan Cooper, his wife, replied, "Then why don't you, dear."

Although no American would have dreamed of making a living as a novelist in 1820, Cooper accepted the challenge, if only to take his mind off his troubles. In 1820 "Precaution" appeared, and to his amazement, was reasonably reviewed, sold moderately well, and was even reprinted in England.

About the Story: "Precaution" (whose title and theme often make people think of Jane Austen) is about the efforts of Lady Anne Moseley, an upper-class English woman whose family fortunes are on the wane, to arrange suitable marriages for her son and three grown daughters. What about the social-climbing Jarvises? An intricate minuet of social activities ensues, with a huge cast of characters -- enlivened by the arrival of the young George Denbigh (whose father promptly drops dead in church), by a kindly and idiosyncratic bachelor uncle, and a mysterious Spanish lady with a shady past. There is flirting, jilting, engagements and marriages -- mostly unhappy. Through all of this sails the oldest Moseley daughter, Emily, guided in her conduct by a wise aunt, Mrs. Wilson, who takes the "precaution" of warning her against matrimonial dangers. Is to too much to add that Emily's ultimate marriage is successful beyond her wildest dreams?

Significance: "Precaution" is not a wonderful novel; Cooper was describing an English social life about which he knew little, and he was learning how to write novels "on the job." But there are hints of better things to come -- perhaps especially in the character of Peter Johnson, an outspoken and unconventional butler who in some ways resembles the Natty Bumppo of the Leather-Stocking Tales.

Finding it: Never reprinted by itself, "Precaution" was included in the many "collected works" editions of Cooper. Odd volumes turn up regularly in bookstores for less that $10 (but should you find the 1820 first edition, it's worth about $10,000). It is also available "on line." And, of course, there is the Village Library. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: "The Spy" -- our first truly American novel, and first best seller.

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2. The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground. Novel (1821). [From the The Freeman's Journal, July 6, 2001.]

Background: Encouraged by his modest success with "Precaution" (1820), James Fenimore Cooper immediately began a new novel, "The Spy." He chose a topic he knew about -- the American Revolution in the "neutral ground" that lay between British occupied New York City and George Washington's army in the Hudson highlands..

John Jay (1745-1829), one of America's "founding fathers," had directed George Washington's spy service during the Revolution. Jay -- an old friend living near Cooper's Westchester County home -- told Cooper about an unnamed Revolutionary spy who had served America bravely and without seeking reward, while pretending to be a British agent and thus incurring the hatred of his countrymen..

The Story: In 1780 Mr. Wharton has retreated from New York to his country house in the "neutral ground" of Westchester County -- caught between the British and American armies, and harried by terrorist gangs (the "cow-boys" and the "skinners"), who purport to be patriots or Tories but are really just bandits..

Wharton heads a divided family. His son Henry is in the British Army. His older daughter Sarah falls in love with a British Colonel. His younger daughter Frances, a resolute patriot, is engaged to American Army Major Dunwoodie. Through this divided land stalks the mysterious figure of Harvey Birch, a humble peddler, using his unmatched knowledge of the terrain to move secretly and at will. Accepted as a mere trader by the British, and suspect to most Patriots, Harvey Birch is really George Washington's most effective spy..

Before the story ends, we have met George Washington himself (sometimes in disguise), Wharton's British army son and Harvey Birch have faced hanging as British agents, and the "neutral ground" has been torn by battle and destruction..

Significance: "The Spy" was an immediate popular success. For the first time, Americans could read an exciting novel about their own history. James Fenimore Cooper was instantly launched into fame and -- eventually -- fortune. One Enoch Crosby even claimed, unconvincingly, to have been the "real" Harvey Birch. .

Within five years, "The Spy" had been published in England, and been translated into French, German, Swedish, Italian, and Spanish. In 1820 the cynical British essayist Sidney Smith had exclaimed "In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book?" James Fenimore Cooper had given him the answer, and American literature was launched throughout the world..

As in all his novels, Cooper used as framework the literary formula of the "Romance" -- first popularized by Sir Walter Scott. A respectable young couple (here Frances Wharton and Major Dunwoodie), with whom readers can identify, has adventures and gets married in the last chapter. But "The Spy" is not just a story of war and espionage. In it, Cooper constantly reminds us that the Revolution was a bitter civil war, with heroes and villains on both sides, where the course of honor and justice was often hard to see. And Cooper was no longer an amateur; he had become a real novelist..

Finding it: "The Spy" has been frequently reprinted, most recently by Penguin Books (1997); and is available "on line." It is also in most libraries, and in sets of Cooper. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: "The Pioneers" -- Cooper's tale of Cooperstown.

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3. The Pioneers; or, The Sources of the Susquehanna. Novel (1823). [From The Freeman's Journal, July 13, 2001]

Background: The enormous success of "The Spy" (1821), showed James Fenimore Cooper that there was an eager audience for stories about American life. For his third novel, he turned to memories of the frontier village of Cooperstown in which he had grown up, but which -- in 1823 -- he had not visited for five years.

Cooper made full use of Cooperstown (called Templeton in the novel) with its taverns and schoolhouse, of Lake Otsego and its surrounding hills, of his childhood home of Otsego Hall, and even of some fellow villagers. But his purpose was not to write a local history (he would do that later). He wanted to generalize about the New York country scene as the heart of early America, shortly after the Revolution.

Cooper uses his "models" (even his father Judge William Cooper of Cooperstown, who "resembles" the fictional Judge Marmaduke Temple of Templeton) only as starting points on which to build fictional characters based on his own imagination.

The Story: Elizabeth Temple has returned home to Templeton on Christmas eve of 1793 with her widower father Judge Temple. She quickly encounters the romantic but mysterious young Oliver Edwards -- who shares a cabin on the village outskirts with the old hunter, Natty Bumppo, and his Indian friend John Mohegan (Chingachgook). Edwards badly conceals a deep unexplained grudge against the Temple family, but nevertheless enters the household as Judge Temple's secretary.

"The Pioneers" come from many lands, and we gradually meet villagers of many origins -- Yankees, English, French, German, Dutch, and Scotch-Irish, as well as Blacks (free and slave) and a Native American. We visit Judge Temple's mansion and the Bold Dragoon Tavern, and participate in everyday events in the life of the village (Christmas eve and Christmas, a "turkey shoot" on the frozen lake, maple sugaring, a fishing expedition, the annual slaughter of migrating passenger pigeons).

The plot then quickens. Elizabeth encounters a mountain lion. Natty Bumppo -- whose mysteriously locked cabin hides some great mystery -- is arrested for killing a deer out of season. And the story comes to a blazing climax as a forest fire rages on Mount Vision overlooking the village.

Significance: Like "The Spy," Cooper's new novel was a best-seller. Americans delighted in reading about themselves, or people they recognized, in a setting that was purely American and that seemed to typify the young nation. Its vivid pictures of American life, and its picture of American ethnic diversity, accompany a story involving major social, racial, ethical, and environmental issues, many of them unresolved today.

Finally, "The Pioneers" introduced Cooper's most immortal character, the philosophical Natty Bumppo (Leatherstocking). A solitary, restless old hunter with exceptional woodland skills, Natty was to become, after four more books, an almost mythic figure in American literature. His valiant deeds, and his eloquence on behalf of nature and the wilderness, of honor and integrity, and of the humanity of the Native American, made him a conscience for America, while with his Indian friend Chingachgook he began what would become the American "Western" tradition.

Finding it: Often reprinted (several current paperback editions), and on line. For on-line texts see Links Page. See also Reading The Pioneers as History

Next Week: "Tales for Fifteen" -- two almost forgotten short stories.

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4. Tales for Fifteen. Two short stories (1823). [From The Freeman's Journal, July 20, 2001]

Background: In the course of writing "The Spy" in 1821, Cooper began to compose a series of five moral tales for adolescent girls. Of these only two were ever actually written: "Imagination," and "Heart." The three others, which were to be called "Matter," "Manner," and "Matter and Manner," never materialized. Two years later, the two moral stories Cooper had completed were published as "Tales for Fifteen," under the pen name of "Jane Morgan."

Of "Imagination," Cooper wrote many years later that it was "written one rainy day, half asleep and half awake, but I retain a favorable impression of it."

The Stories:

"Imagination" is a long (124 pages) and surprisingly funny story about 16-year old Julia Warren of New York, a romantic schoolgirl who reads too many novels. Julia is led to believe, by a less-than-scrupulous friend, that she has a secret lover named Antonio, an enormously handsome young man of noble birth and great wealth, as well as being a decorated war hero. When she embarks on a trip to Niagara Falls with her aunt and a rejected real-life suitor, Charles Weston, Julia is told that her romantic lover will secretly accompany her so as to protect her from all danger. She soon identifies her Antonio as being their drunken, one-eyed old coachman Tony (her hero is evidently a real master of disguise), and proceeds to misinterpret everything the uncouth Tony says and does as concealing a secret message expressing his devotion to her. Eventually, of course, Julia's eyes are opened to reality and, as is hardly surprising, she rediscovers the merits of the worthy Charles Weston -- who has in fact saved her from drowning.

"Heart" is shorter (Cooper evidently finished it off in a hurry) and less entertaining. The story is about faithfulness in love. Twenty-year old Mary Osgood refuses to abandon a generous and gifted young musician, George Morton, who loves her, even when he contracts a long and debilitating illness. "Heart" does, however, present an interesting picture of New York City social life in the 1820s.

Significance: "Imagination" is deftly told and is often hilarious. The theme of a young girl whose romantic notions completely cloud her sense of reality is a fairly unusual one (though Jane Austen uses it in her "Northanger Abbey") but Cooper carries it off well. Cooper got no credit for it at the time -- who would associate "Jane Morgan" with the author of "The Spy" and "The Pioneers"! But it deserves to be rediscovered.

Cooper had only agreed to the publication of "Tales for Fifteen" as a gesture of gratitude to Charles Wiley, the publisher of "The Spy," who was in serious financial difficulties, and the slim volume was hardly noticed. Only four copies of "Tales for Fifteen" are known still to exist. When Boston publisher George Roberts wanted to reprint the two stories in 1841, even Cooper didn't own a copy -- and Roberts had to track one down by himself.

Finding it: Using one of the four surviving copies, a small facsimile edition was published in 1959, and reprinted in 1977. Two years ago, however, I transcribed the book, and placed it on-line on the internet (with some explanatory notes), where it can be found at a number of web sites, including that of the James Fenimore Cooper Society. For on-line texts see Links Page and, on the Cooper Society Website: Tales for Fifteen

Next Week: "The Pilot" -- literature's first novel of the sea.

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5. The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea . Novel (1823). [From The Freeman's Journal, August 2, 2001]

Background: As a young man, James Fenimore Cooper developed a love of the sea and of sailing ships -- first as a merchant sailor in 1806-7, and then as a Midshipman in the infant United States Navy from 1808-11. It was a fascination that would last the rest of his life, and some of his closest life-long friends were career US naval officers. But in the early 19th century, the sea was not considered a suitable topic for fiction: the sea was either dangerous or boring; ships were too complicated; and sailors were drunken slobs.

In 1823, however, Cooper decided to try to use the sea as the basis of a story. He was prodded into doing so by Sir Walter Scott's novel, "The Pirate" (1822), in which a few scenes occur aboard ship and in which, Cooper believed, Scott got it all wrong. In order to please the American audience that had enjoyed "The Spy" Cooper chose as his subject the American naval hero of the Revolution, John Paul Jones (disguised as "Mr. Gray" or the "Pilot").

The Story: During the American Revolution, an unnamed American warship, accompanied by the schooner "Ariel," is hovering off the English coast, planning a series of commando-like raids on shore against the British enemy. The mission is to locate and take on board a mysterious pilot (whose real identity is known only to the Captain), and to capture British officers as hostages for the good treatment of American prisoners.

Two American officers -- Lieutenants Edward Griffith and Richard Barnstable, lead the raids and provide romantic interest. But the most memorable character is "Long Tom" Coffin -- an ordinary seaman from Nantucket Island, who grew up as a whaler and still carries his harpoon with him everywhere. "Long Tom" is uneducated but outspoken, and his valor and independence make him a sort of nautical Natty Bumppo. He became an instant favorite of Cooper's readers.

Once ashore, Barnstable discovers that his fiancee Katherine Plowden and her cousin Cecilia are in a nearby mansion, held as virtual captives by Cecelia's father, a South Carolina Tory who has brought his family to England for safety.

What Cooper's public liked best, however, were the scenes at sea, as the ships are threatened by storm and rocks, and engage the British enemy in battle.

Significance: In "The Pilot," Cooper succeeded for the first time in literature in making the sea, the complex technology of maneuvering sailing ships, and the exotic characters of sailors, exciting to armchair readers. The novel was big success which he would follow up with a long series of sea novels (during his lifetime often more popular than his wilderness tales), and in doing so launched a new genre of writing that has lasted down to the present, with C.S. Foresters's Captain Hornblower and Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin. As we shall see, Cooper's novels often extended literary horizons, and his discovery that technology can make good reading has led in many directions, including the science fiction of space travel.

Finding it: "The Pilot," in addition to being included in all sets of Cooper's novels, has frequently been reprinted separately. It is currently available in an expensive ($20.00) paperback, and can also be found on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: "Lionel Lincoln" -- Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill.

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6. Lionel Lincoln; or, The Leaguer of Boston. Novel (1825). [from The Freeman's Journal, August 17, 2001]

Background: After his success describing the American Revolution at sea in "The Pilot," Cooper had what seemed a brilliant idea -- a series of historical novels about the American Revolution, each set in a different colony. The overall title would be "Legends of the Thirteen Republics." Where to start seemed obvious -- in 1825 Massachusetts would celebrate the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Revolution, the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, and the patriot siege ("leaguer") of British-held Boston. Early in 1824, after visiting Boston and Cambridge to study the history of these events, and to meet with local experts, Cooper began to write.

The Story: Early in 1775 Lionel Lincoln, a Boston-born Major in the British Army, returns on duty from England to the city of his birth. At the home of a great-aunt he meets and falls in love with his cousin Cecil Dynevor -- but soon realizes that some great family mystery is being concealed by the household. Has it something to do with his own father -- who has been locked up in an English insane asylum? Who is the crazy old man who calls himself "Ralph," and follows him around? Who is the mentally retarded boy Job Pray, taunted and abused by the British soldiers, who defends the patriot cause, and whose impoverished mother is secretly helped by his great-aunt?

Accompanied by Ralph and Job, Lincoln explores British-occupied Boston in disguise, seeing the oppression under which its people now live. As a British soldier he joins in the confused expedition sent by night in April 1775 to seize the patriot arms depots in Lexington and Concord; he experiences the battles that ensue, and the British retreat back to Boston under fire from the Minute Men. As the patriots' siege of Boston tightens, he is wounded in the British attack on Bunker Hill. Lincoln's conflicting ties of loyalty to his King and affection for his native America, his efforts to gain the love of Cecil Dynevor, and the gradual uncovering of the mystery surrounding his personal history, lead to a dramatic and sometimes gruesome conclusion.

Significance: The famous American historian George Bancroft wrote in 1851 that "In Lionel Lincoln (Cooper) has described the battle of Bunker Hill better than it is described in any other work." Veterans of the American Revolution agreed. Bostonians were delighted to read an account of their city's part in the birth of the United States, but were no doubt mystified at seeing it described through the eyes of an American serving in the British army.

Critics in America praised Cooper's vivid depiction of the opening scenes of the American Revolution (British critics were generally annoyed). But many readers found the plot of "Lionel Lincoln" overly complicated, and its dark Gothic atmosphere of mystery and madness seemed more appropriate to a European setting of haunted castles and monasteries than to an American colonial town. Cooper abandoned his "Legends of the Thirteen Republics" series, and sought a different topic.

Finding it: "Lionel Lincoln" is available primarily in odd volumes from reprinted Cooper sets.

Next Week: "The Last of the Mohicans" -- Cooper's best known and most popular book.

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7. The Last of the Mohicans; A Narrative of 1757. Novel (1826). [from The Freeman's Journal, August 24, 2001]

Background: In the summer of 1824 James Fenimore Cooper escorted a group of young British aristocrats on a tour of Glens Falls, Lake George, and the upper Hudson River. One of them (later a Prime Minister of Great Britain) suggested that the cave on the island in the Hudson at Glens Falls would be a great site for a novel about Indians. Cooper agreed, and the next summer -- after the comparative failure of "Lionel Lincoln" -- began to write "The Last of the Mohicans." Moving backward in time from the 1793 of "The Pioneers," and the Revolutionary years of "The Spy," "The Pilot," and "Lionel Lincoln," Cooper chose for his setting the last of the wars between France and England for control of North America.

The Story: In 1757 Major Duncan Heyward, a Virginian officer in the British Army, escorts two half-sisters from Fort Edward on the upper Hudson to join their father Col. Munro, commander of Fort William Henry on Lake George. Cora is beautiful, dark-haired, courageous, and (as we learn) partly African-American. Alice is a pretty but helpless blonde with whom Major Heyward promptly falls in love. Led astray by Magua, a treacherous Huron Indian with a long-standing grudge against Col. Munro, they are rescued by three British Army scouts: Hawkeye and Chingachgook (whom we met as Leatherstocking and John Mohegan in "The Pioneers") and Chingachgook's handsome and valiant young son Uncas.

After many exciting adventures, Hawkeye leads Cora and Alice safely to Fort William Henry, only to find its small garrison surrounded by the French under General Montcalm. Then follows a largely historical account of the siege and surrender of the Fort, and of the massacre that followed it -- a defeat as familiar to Cooper's readers as the Alamo and Pearl Harbor are to us today.

When the two half-sisters are carried off into the Adirondacks by the still vengeful Magua, Major Heyward and the three scouts follow in hot pursuit. They enter what was even in 1826 a largely unexplored wilderness, which Cooper peoples with vividly described Native Americans whose lives and customs are still largely uncorrupted by contact with Europeans. Here only a genuine understanding of Indian ways allows Cooper's heroes to catch up with the fleeing captives, as the story moves towards its action-packed climax.

Significance: Cooper's novel, with its thrilling adventures that have made it a favorite all over the world, is also a serious adult portrayal of how the American wilderness and its native peoples helped forge the American character, and of the complex and often tragic relations between America's three races -- white, black, and red. His descriptions of Native American customs were taken from John Heckewelder, who was the best informed and most sympathetic writer about Indian ways in early 19th century America. None of the many movie versions do the novel justice, and most -- including the most recent -- change its plot and characters almost unrecognizably.

Finding it:Available almost everywhere paperbacks are sold, and on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: "The Prairie" -- Natty Bumppo's final adventures in the vast new territories of the West acquired by America in 1804; rescuing hapless travellers, living among the Indians of the plains, and warning of a possibly bleak American future.

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8. The Prairie. Novel (1827). [From The Freeman's Journal, August 31, 2001]

Background: While studying Native American culture for "The Last of the Mohicans," James Fenimore Cooper had travelled to New York and Washington to meet personally with Indian delegations from the great plains of the West, and came to know and admire several of their leaders. He studied carefully the travel accounts of Lewis and Clark, and especially the later explorations of Major Steven Long, who had placed the "Great American Desert" stretching from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, on the real and mental maps of Americans in the east.

From these sources Cooper -- who never did visit the high plains -- created the barren, treeless setting of "The Prairie," a setting that often resembles the endless ocean expanses of his sea novels. Unfit for cultivation or settlement, Cooper's prairie is inhabited only by nomadic horse-riding Indians and the vast herds of buffalo.

The Story: In 1805 Ishmael Bush, his family and adult sons, have ventured beyond the Missouri to escape the law and seek a life free from civilized restraints. With them are the resourceful Ellen Wade, the pedantic naturalist Dr. Bat, and, closely concealed in a tent -- well, the reader will find out. This nomadic band is rescued from its own ineptitude by a very aged Natty Bumppo (now known only as "the trapper"). Dismayed by the destruction of his beloved wilderness by the tree-chopping settlers in the east, he has fled westward to escape "the sound of their axes," and lives a meager life among his Pawnee Indian friends. The Bush party is also being trailed, for equally good but different reasons, by Army Captain Duncan Uncas Middleton, the grandson of Duncan Heyward of "Mohicans," and by a "bee hunter" named Paul Hover.

Soon the whole party finds itself in the midst of a war between two Native American peoples -- the Pawnee and the Sioux. Cooper explores the characters and ways of life of these plains Indians as carefully as he had those of the forest Indians in "Mohicans." In the Pawnee chieftain Hardhart he creates an Indian character as vivid, and as humane, as Chingachgook and Uncas in his earlier tales. There follow exciting adventures of capture and escape, prairie-fire and buffalo stampede, and a heinous murder with a grim aftermath, before the story -- and Natty himself -- come to a fit conclusion. Throughout, Cooper (in the voice of Natty) repeatedly asks whether the desolate prairie may be a sign of what all America may someday become -- if the environmental destruction and "wasty ways" of her settlers are not somehow restrained.

Significance:Begun in New York, and completed in Paris after Cooper took his family to Europe in 1826, "The Prairie" remained Cooper's personal favorite among his novels. It was the culmination of a trilogy in which he had symbolically considered America's present ("The Pioneers"), its past ("Mohicans"), and now -- perhaps -- its future. That may be why "The Prairie" is written in an epic style in which Natty himself almost assumes the role of a Biblical prophet. Cooper's own life was changing and, though he did not forget the American frontier, he would not return to write another story about Natty Bumppo for almost 15 years.

Finding it: Available in many paperback editions, and on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: Pirates, sea battles, and the Newport tower in "The Red Rover," an international favorite among Cooper's novels of the sea.

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9. The Red Rover. Novel (1828). [From The Freeman's Journal, September 14, 2001]

Background: Now living with his family in Paris, Cooper turned again to the sea, and to Newport, Rhode Island, where, during the colonial period, South Carolina plantation owners spent their summers. Newport is also the site of the famous "Newport Tower" -- a stone structure long believed by some to be of Viking origin. Cooper had visited Newport and its harbor about 1820, and in 1824 -- on his way home from researching "Lionel Lincoln" in Boston -- he had explored its local history with a member of the Rhode Island Historical Society.

The Story: "The Red Rover" is about a pirate -- a noble, generous, courageous pirate in the tradition of Lord Byron's poems. As Newport celebrates Britain's victory over France at Quebec in 1759, ominous rumors circulate of a mysterious ship -- perhaps a slave trader -- lurking outside its harbor. We meet a young gentleman, Harry Wilder, and his companions, two sailors named Dick Fidd and Scipio Africanus. Wilder encounters the "Red Rover" and for unfathomable reasons agrees to become First Mate of his pirate ship "Dolphin." But he has meanwhile learned (from a conversation overheard while hiding in the Newport Tower) about a family of w0men, including the beautiful Gertrude Grayson, who plan to sail for South Carolina on board the "Royal Caroline." Fearing that the Red Rover plans to attack the ship, Wilder tries to convince them of their danger -- and when the attempt fails he takes a chance opportunity to become Captain of the "Royal Caroline" himself as it sails from Newport.

The pirate ship "Dolphin" stalks the "Royal Caroline" down the Atlantic coast, pitting the skills of the romantic pirate against those of young Wilder. There is a succession of storms and mutinies, of battles and captures, that would lay the framework for every novel (and movie) of the sea that has followed. An important subplot involves the close friendship of the two sailors -- one white and one black -- whose lives are tied up with that of Wilder.

But what is Harry Wilder's real history? Who is the Red Rover, and why has he chosen the life of an outlawed pirate? What is the secret of the beautiful Gertrude's old governess, Mrs. Wyllys? And who is "Roderick," the mysterious cabin boy who presides over the lush carpets and oriental furnishings of the Red Rover's inner sanctum on board the "Dolphin"? As usual in a Cooper plot, there are mysteries to be disclosed as well as danger to be overcome.

Significance: During Cooper's lifetime, "The Red Rover" was as popular as his frontier stories, and became the basis for plays, musicals, and other spin-offs -- in both England and in America. Cooper's romantic pirate joined Lord Byron's swashbuckling nautical heroes -- part criminal, part gentleman, and always mysterious -- as literary types who have made many a Hollywood fortune.

Finding it: The Library of America has a handsome volume of Cooper's "Sea Tales" (The Pirate" and "The Red Rover"). Otherwise look for used reprint editions, and on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: "Notions of the Americans" -- To please General Lafayette, and to contradict French and British anti-American propaganda, Cooper writes a detailed account of American government and society.

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10. Notions of the Americans: Picked up by a Travelling Bachelor. Social and Political Description (1828). [From The Freeman's Journal, September 28, 2001]

Background: No Frenchman is more closely associated with America than the Marquis de Lafayette, who as a young man had become a hero of the American Revolution. In 1824-25, when Lafayette toured America to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Revolution, Cooper had been one of the welcoming committee in New York, and had covered his triumphal arrival for the "New York American." When Cooper arrived in Paris in 1826, Lafayette was leading the forces of reform and democracy against the Bourbon monarchy, and the two men became close friends.

Lafayette repeatedly asked Cooper to write a book about his 1824 American visit, and Cooper -- who thought that this might be rather dull -- finally decided that he could use the visit as a framework for a serious book describing American government and society. He hoped that it would be read throughout Europe and that it might counteract the consistently anti-American accounts of most French and British travellers to the new American republic.

The Story: Cooper chose to write his description as a series of 38 fictional letters, supposedly written by a Belgian traveler (the "bachelor") to America to his friends in various European countries. The un-named Belgian is escorted on his travels through America by "Cadwallader" -- a character evidently based on Cooper himself -- who serves as a guide and to explain American culture and institutions. For nearly 700 pages, the narrator visits various parts of America (he even comes to Cooperstown), investigates every aspect of America's government, society, and culture, and writes back to his friends to explain what the new Republic is like and how it works, providing both extensive facts and careful analysis.

No aspect of American society is left out: Cooper describes not just government and questions of public policy, but literature and the arts, popular manners, and what makes American culture special. And Cooper does not forget to include Lafayette's visit -- which was perhaps the greatest triumphal tour in American history.

Significance: One modern writer has said that "no other book of Cooper's day set forth so clearly the structure of the American government or illustrated so well the practical impact of that structure on the self-concept of those who lived within it." It is certainly one of the most comprehensive accounts of America ever written, and still well worth reading for its description of early America and of the American character. Although it was published in England as well as America, and translated promptly into French and German, "Notions" received little attention, was (not surprisingly) "panned" in monarchist England and France, and even American reviewers found fault with it as too "pro-American." Cooper was bitterly disappointed by its commercial failure.

Finding it: Never included in Cooper's collected works (which were limited to his novels) "Notions of the Americans" was nevertheless reprinted several times, and is currently available in an excellent $25 paperback edition published in 1993 by the SUNY Press in Albany. Not yet, alas, available on-line.

Next Week: "The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish" -- Puritans and Indians meet on the frontier of colonial Connecticut, in one of the greatest of Cooper's "Indian" stories.

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11. The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish. Novel (1829). [From The Freeman's Journal, October 5, 2001]

Background: In 1828 Cooper spent the winter with his family in Florence, Italy, renting an apartment in the Palazzo Ricasoli (today a hostel for American students abroad). His new subject was the Connecticut frontier in the 1600's -- and the moral and physical confrontations between Puritans seeking to build Christian settlements in the wilderness and the Indians they were replacing -- often by means of violence and treachery.

The Story: In 1660 the devout Mark Heathcote and his family have left Massachusetts Bay to settle in the valley of the "wish-ton-wish" (whip-poor-will) in western Connecticut, where they hope to live a life of religious purity. In England, Cromwell has fallen and the throne of England has been "restored" to King Charles II, Puritans are everywhere in disarray, and a search is on for the English judges (the "regicides") who had condemned King Charles I to death in 1649.

Heathcote buys land honestly from the local Indians, and for a time the tiny settlement prospers and grows. The plot thickens with the arrival of a mysterious stranger on horseback, and with the capture and adoption of an Indian boy who claims to be Conanchet, the (real life) son of Miantonimoh, a Narragansett Chief murdered by the Puritans in 1643.

Then, in 1676, as "King Philip's" war spreads through New England, Indians attack the community and carry off Mark's only granddaughter Ruth -- the lost child who becomes the "wept" of the valley of the wish-ton-wish -- and the framework for the rest of Cooper's story is set. The settlement receives new colonists, including an unscrupulous and greedy demagogue, the aptly-named Rev. Meek Wolfe.

The interplay of Puritan and Indian cultures (the girl Ruth adopts the Indian name of Narra-mattah), the killing and treachery that characterized King Philip's War, and the contrast between piety and hypocrisy, all play their parts in an increasingly turbulent story. What will become of Mark Heathcote's attempt to found a settlement based on true religious virtue? Must it -- must the American dream -- inevitably break down in the face of greed?

Significance: Cooper dramatically portrayed how relations between white settlers and Native Americans got off to a disastrous start in early New England, setting patterns that would be tragically repeated for centuries. He faced squarely issues like mixed marriages, that most of his readers were horrified even to imagine, as well as probing many aspects of the complex Puritan mind. The "Wept" is one of Cooper's most powerful and exciting novels, but one that -- with its cryptic and somewhat indigestible title -- has been largely forgotten. Cooperstonians, of course, will remember that the Cooper family named a property on Estli Avenue "Heathcote" -- the family name of Mrs. Cooper's grandfather -- and that one of Lake Otsego's most beautiful mahogany launches still bears the name of Narra-Mattah.

Finding it: Available only in odd volumes from reprinted editions, and on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: Back to the sea with "The Water-Witch," Cooper's most light-hearted and whimsical maritime adventure.

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12. The Water-Witch; or, The Skimmer of the Seas. Novel (1830). [From The Freeman's Journal, October 12, 2001]

Background: In mid-1829, after almost a year in Florence, Cooper chartered a sailboat in Leghorn (Livorno), which took him and his family down the Italian coast, stopping at the Isle of Elba (which he would use in a later novel) and other ports. They arrived at Naples, and Cooper rented part of a palace ("said to be the birthplace of the Renaissance poet Tasso") in Sorrento overlooking the magnificent bay -- it is now the Imperial Hotel Tramontano. The months that followed, exploring with his wife and children the beauties of the area by boat and on donkey-back, and writing on his terrace overlooking the Bay of Naples, were perhaps the happiest in Cooper's life.

Cooper's joy at his life on the Bay of Naples, which he considered the most beautiful place on earth, was reflected in the novel he wrote there -- though his story is set in and around New York harbor in about 1710, when New York was still largely a Dutch town. There is even a cameo appearance by Lord Cornbury, perhaps the most corrupt official England ever imposed on its New York colony.

The Story: Myndert Van Beverout, fur merchant and city official in colonial New York, has a country place (which he calls "Lust in Rust") on the New Jersey coast where he buys silks and other luxuries "duty free" from the mysterious smuggler who sometimes calls himself Tom Tiller. Tiller's ship, the "Water-Witch," has an almost miraculous ability to avoid capture, thanks -- as we learn -- to the cryptic advice dispensed (in literary quotations on enamel tablets) by the wicked looking figurehead at its prow for which the ship is named. Meanwhile, an American-born British naval officer, Captain Cornelius Ludlow, commander of Her Majesty's Ship "Coquette," has vowed to capture the "Water-Witch" and put an end to her contraband activities.

The plot thickens when Alida de Barberie -- Van Beverout's beautiful niece and fiancé of the stodgy "Young Patroon" Oloff Van Staats -- vanishes after negotiating for imported fabrics with the rather-too-handsome young Seadrift. Apparently she has been kidnapped aboard the "Water-Witch." There follow sea chases, battles, and struggles with the elements as the "Coquette" chases the "Water-Witch" around Long Island, leading to an exciting nautical ending.

As usual, the adventure is heightened by mystery. Who is "Tom Tiller," the skipper of the "Water-Witch" and how does he manage his amazing escapes? Who are Seadrift, who sells his smuggled wares -- and Zephyr, the cabin boy who has never set foot on land? And who, of course, will marry whom?

Significance: Lighter and more whimsical in tone than any other Cooper novel -- though there is nothing whimsical about its very real adventures at sea -- "The Water-Witch" has had a mixed reception from readers. Some think it "light weight" -- others, including myself, consider it one of Cooper's finest and most enjoyable novels.

Finding it: There have been no recent reprints of "The Water-Witch," but it is available in odd volumes from old editions, and can also be found "on line." For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: "The Bravo," set in 18th century Venice, is one of Cooper's best and most serious works, whose analysis of totalitarian terror anticipated Orwell's' "1984" by over a century as it sought to warn Americans against the dangers of corporate tyranny.

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13. The Bravo. Novel (1831). [From The Freeman's Journal, October 19, 2001]

Background: In the spring of 1830, after a winter in Rome, the Cooper family spent a week in Venice on their way back to Germany and France. Cooper was enormously impressed by Venice, and quickly decided to use it as a setting for a novel. Venice, before its conquest by Napoleon in 1797, had been one of Europe's few Republics. But Venice was in reality a totalitarian society (though the word had not been invented), ruled by an anonymous Council of Three, which controlled its nominally democratic institutions by means of an army of spies and secret policemen, bribes and torture, arbitrary arrests and assassinations, and the manipulation of public opinion.

The Story: Two couples are caught in the toils of the Venetian government. Don Camillo, a foreign nobleman, wants to marry Violetta Tiepolo, a Venetian heiress for whom the secret bureaucracy has other plans. Jacopo Frontoni, the "Bravo" (Italian slang for a hired assassin) of the title, is an unwilling criminal, forced to carry out the will of the Council of Three, and accept public responsibility for its evil acts, or see his imprisoned father executed. Jacopo is in love with Gelsomina, daughter of the jail keeper of the dungeon in which the father is held captive on false charges.

In Cooper's atmospheric novel, the daytime brilliance of Venetian public ceremonies constantly contrasts with the nighttime plotting in badly lit palaces and moonlit alleys and cemeteries. Eventually everyone is drawn into a dark world of corruption and betrayal, including Antonio, a poor old fisherman who dares to protest when his only grandson is drafted into the Venetian war-galleys; Senator Gradenigo, who can always find excuses for not letting his humanity interfere with the interests of the State; and Hosea, a Jewish merchant constantly subject to official blackmail and extortion.

"The Bravo" combines a taut and exciting plot with a vividly portrayed atmosphere of false brilliance and essential evil. And its ending is perhaps the most unexpected and compelling in all of Cooper's fiction.

Significance: Cooper's meaning is clear; just because America is a Republic, it is not safe from tyranny. Greed, inherited wealth and position, demagogy and the manipulation of public opinion, can create a bureaucratic totalitarianism worse than any individual despot, because it is secret, faceless, and without humanity. Not until the 20th century did Nazi Germany and Communist Russia show that Cooper's dark imaginings were all too prophetic. "The Bravo" is in many ways Cooper's most important book, and one of the best written. Not surprisingly, perhaps, it has been the basis for several Italian operas, one of them (Saverio Mercadante's "Il Bravo") still being performed.

Finding it: The usual old odd volumes from sets of Cooper's works, and one 1961 reprint; it can also be found "on line" on the Internet. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: "The Heidenmauer" -- Cooper continues his "European novels" with a story of sin and redemption, of morality and greed, as a feudal lord, a monastery, and a rising bourgeois town fight for mastery in a Germany on the verge of the Protestant Reformation.

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14. The Heidenmauer; or, The Benedictines. A Legend of the Rhine. Novel (1832) [From The Freeman's Journal, November 2, 2001]

Background: In September 1831 Cooper and his family were returning to Paris from a trip through Belgium and the Rhineland, and stopped for the night at The Ox Inn in Bad Durkheim, a village near Heidelburg. That evening Cooper and his eight-year-old-son Paul visited the "heidenmauer" or heathen wall -- supposed to have been built by Attila the Hun -- and heard stories about the Counts of Hartenburg who had ruled Durkheim from their castle, and of the Benedictine Monastery of Limburg that once stood on an adjoining hill. As Cooper watched his young son play among the ruins, he mused on the long panorama of European history that had come together to produce the varied ethnic face of America, and so a novel was born.

The Story: Count Emich of Hartenburg is a soldier's soldier, a crude and illiterate feudal lord, who prides himself on his valor and his capacity to hold liquor, and surrounds himself with opportunists of every sort. His great rival is the nearby Benedictine Monastery of Limburg, presided over by the hospitable but worldly Abbot Bonifacius, whose fellow monks -- save for the truly pious Father Arnolph and the fanatic Father Johan -- are as worldly as he.

Between the castle and the monastery the trading town of Durkheim is rising in importance, led by its burgomaster Hendrick Frey -- whose life revolves about his money and his desire to find a wealthy husband for his beautiful daughter Meta. Unfortunately, Meta is in love with the poor but worthy Berchtold, Count Emich's forester. The time is the early 1500s, and though everyone in the story is Catholic, murmurs of Luther and of religious and civil revolt are beginning to circulate.

In a crude hut built inside the ruins of the "heidenmauer," lives a pious but secretive hermit, who is much revered by the local populace, including Ulricke Frey, wife of the burgomaster, and Berchtold's widowed mother Lottchen. The plot thickens when Count Emich seeks to enlist the support of Burgomaster Frey for an attack on the Monastery. This begins a train of events that leads to violence (but not to murder) and to an analysis of morality in its many complex aspects. What is virtue -- and can any human being be all good, or for that matter all bad? If Cooper cannot always answer these questions, we are left with a greater understanding of human strength and frailty.

Significance: The most religiously oriented novel of Cooper's early works, "The Heidenmauer" has been likened to a medieval morality play, in which communities experience sin, penance, and redemption. Cooper, a life-long Episcopalian, was deeply moved by the beauty, pageantry, and devotion of European Catholicism. Here he explores both individual morality, and the complex relationships in Renaissance Germany between the old feudal order, the Catholic establishment, and the rising new commercial towns and classes. Above all this book reflects his belief in the essential goodness of man -- that even the worst of men have seeds of good that can be cultivated.

Fi nding It: Only available, alas, in odd volumes from old reprint sets, and on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: "No Steamboats" is a long-lost humorous story making fun of French misunderstandings about American culture, written by Cooper in French and published in Paris. It is not, however, a plea for a motorless Otsego!

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15. No Steamboats ("Point de bateaux à vapeur"). Short story (1832). [From The Freeman's Journal, November 9, 2001]

Background: During his seven years in Europe, Cooper was constantly struck by all the things that Europeans "knew" about America that just weren't so, and how often they refused to accept the word of visiting Americans to the contrary.

In 1832, while living in Paris, Cooper wrote a humorous article on the subject in French -- for a literary annual called "Paris, or the Book of One Hundred and One," No. 9. So far as is known, this is the only time that Cooper wrote for publiction in the French language (though he spoke French quite fluently, and often corresponded in it).

"No Steamboats" was reprinted (in French) in Belgium, and was even translated into English for "The American Ladies Magazine" (a predecessor of the more famous "Godey's Lady's Book") in 1834. But it has been almost totally forgotten.

The Story: The peace and quiet of Cooper's Paris apartment is disturbed by the arrival of three bizarre gentlemen, who identify themselves as the Three European Ideas (Messieurs de Trois-Idées-Européennes). They are Mr. Moneybags (M. de Portefeuille), Mr. Ancestry (M. de Hérédité), and Mr. Doe (M. Blouse -- literally, Mr. Smock, from the costume then worn by ordinary French workmen). They have come, they tell Cooper, to explore basic truths, and they are horrified by what they have learned about America.

In America, they say, "the people have rights that belong to the elite, and the consequences are frightening: there is corruption everywhere, egotism reigns, social chaos mingles social classes, Christians are savages, savages are Christians, blacks are white, whites are mulattos, and even the water has changed to rum." They can speak with authority, because they have just received extensive documents from New York on board the latest steamboat to arrive in Le Havre. When Cooper reminds them that there are no steamboats crossing the Atlantic (which was the case in 1832), they refuse to believe him, and ask how he, a sailor, can deny a fact well known throughout Europe from the Mediterranean to the Arctic.

Their litany of error continues: The official name of America is "The United States of North America," and if the American Constitution says otherwise it must be wrong. Americans pay huge taxes. American streets are blocked with chains on Sundays. It took a violent uprising before American boats could sail on the Sabbath. American women drink tea at home with missionaries while their husbands read newspapers in their clubs, and then sew shirts for the poor until midnight. Two Congressmen fought it out on horseback, with pistols and swords, on the floor of the House of Representatives, and only ceased when artillery arrived. Rejecting all corrections, the "Three European Ideas" disappear, oblivious to Cooper's protestations.

Significance: An amusing piece of light humor, reflecting Cooper's often frustrated efforts to teach Europeans about the American he loved.

Finding it: The original (French) version can be found "on line" at the French National Library website. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: "The Headsman" -- tribulations of the hereditary public executioner of Berne, Switzerland, when his son falls in love with an aristocrat. If inherited high status is bad -- what about inherited shame and detestation?

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16. The Headsman; or, The Abbaye des Vignerons. Novel (1833) [From The Freeman's Journal, November 16, 2001]

Background: In 1832, Cooper and his family spent two months -- their second Swiss vacation -- at Vevey on the shores of Lake Geneva. James visited the Castle of Blonay overlooking the town, and with a friend ventured further afield to the famous Pass of the Great St. Bernard, between Switzerland and Italy, where monks and their famous St. Bernard dogs have for centuries rescued and cared for travellers trapped in the heavy snows. Vevey has since the 17th century been famous for its periodic "Festival of the Winegrowers" ("vignerons") sponsored by the local Abbey of St. Urbain, and featuring a famous allegorical procession at which prizes are awarded for the best wines. Cooper just missed the Festival of 1833, but he learned enough about the one held in 1819 to make it a centerpiece of this novel -- nowadays the Festival is held only four times a century -- most recently in 1999.

The Story: In the 18th century an overloaded boat sets sail from Geneva. Baron de Willading is taking his beautiful but ailing daughter Adelheid to Vevey, accompanied by her suitor, a poor but honest Swiss soldier named Sigismund, and by a long-time old friend from Genoa, Signor Grimaldi. The "Winkelried" carries an unruly crowd of passengers -- not to mention two large dogs (which figure so frequently in Cooper novels) -- a St. Bernard named Uberto and a Newfoundland named Nettuno. Panic ensues when the passengers realize that the boat also carries the feared and detested Balthazar -- hereditary executioner (headsman) of the Canton of Berne -- who is blamed, and almost murdered, when the boat encounters a sudden heavy storm.

"The Headsman" revolves about the idea of an inherited title (which cannot be refused) that carries with it undeserved hatred as much as a title of nobility confers undeserved respect; it is essentially concerned with the nature of prejudice. The real identity of the honest Sigismund, and the fate of his love for Adelheid, become involved with the unhappy public executioner and his family, as the story moves through the pageantry of the Festival of the Winegrowers in Vevey to the Castle of Blonay, to end in a vivid and wintry climax at the famous Monastery at the Great Saint Bernard Pass.

Significance: As in his other two "European novels" Cooper explores moral and social evils which had always existed in Europe, but which he feared might still threaten the new democracy being built in America. Thus "The Bravo" deals with faceless bureaucratic tyranny by an aristocracy of wealth, and "The Heidenmauer" with greed and fanaticism and how men can rationalize and even sanctify deeds of profound evil. "The Headsman" is about prejudice -- of fearing, shunning, and threatening others because we believe bad things about them without valid reason. Wherever or whenever they are set, Cooper's novels always address eternal questions -- and usually questions peculiarly relevant to the American experience.

Finding it: Like "The Bravo," and "The Heidenmauer," "The Headsman" is available today only in reprint editions, and on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: Returning disillusioned to America, Cooper rebukes his reading audience, and announces (prematurely) the end of his writing career, in "A Letter to His Countrymen."

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17. A Letter to His Countrymen. Non-fiction (1834) [From The Freeman's Journal, November 23, 2001]

Background: In November 1833, after seven years in Europe, James Fenimore Cooper and his family returned to America. Cooper was deeply disappointed at the generally cool reception his latest novels had received at home -- which he attributed, with some accuracy, to political animosity in the Whig-controlled American press. He was also very upset by the hostile reaction at home (and by American diplomats abroad) to an article he had written for General LaFayette, proving that democratic government in America cost less than royal government in France.

Some of his friends, notably the painter/inventor Samuel Morse, encouraged Cooper's anger; others thought it a bit over the top. But Cooper was genuinely distraught; he even refused an invitation to a welcome-home party offered by his old New York writer friends. He was determined to cease writing novels for what he considered an ungrateful audience. One novel already in the works, a few books of non-fiction he had long contemplated, and he would seek something else to do. And he would do it back home in Cooperstown. Already, Cooper had begun negotiations to buy back his father's old home at Otsego Hall, and to remodel it in the Gothic style he had come to love in Europe. In the mean time, he fired off a 116 page book outlining his discontents.

The Story: "A Letter to His Countrymen" is a strange book. Much of it is devoted to a detailed dissection of a critical American newspaper review of Cooper's 1831 novel "The Bravo," trying to prove (wrongly, as it turned out) that it had been written by a Frenchman and deliberately "planted" in order to discredit him. In rambling fashion, he goes on to denounce the tendency of Americans at home to get their opinions from foreign sources, and of Americans living abroad to poor-mouth their country's institutions in order to cuddle up to foreign aristocrats. He explores the American political system he finds after seven years abroad, discussing the roles of the Presidency and the Congress, of the press and of the parties, and finding little that he likes.

A strong supporter of President Jackson and the concept of political democracy (while at the same time defending cultural elitism and the rights of property), Cooper believed that the anti-Jackson Whig Party was pushing America into the hands of a corrupt aristocracy of wealth, using the tools of demagogy and a controlled press to mislead the people and gain their votes. Congress, he believed, was increasingly under the thumb of the new men with money.

Significance: "A Letter to His Countrymen" is a book only a biographer could love, and it did little to enhance Cooper's reputation. Nevertheless, it contains important clues as to Cooper's political and social philosophy -- ideas which he would express much more effectively four years later in "The American Democrat."

Finding it: Published in 1834, "A Letter" was not reprinted until 2000 -- in James Fenimore Cooper, "The American Democrat and Other Political Writings" (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2000). Your compiler has also placed it on-line on this website at A Letter to His Countrymen

Next Week: The Monikins," is Cooper's strangest (and perhaps his funniest) novel, a tale of biting satire in which civilized monkeys in Antarctica "ape" the political and cultural ways of England and America.

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18. The Monikins. Novel (1835) [From The Freeman's Journal, December 7, 2001]

Background: "The quill and I are divorced.... The tales are done. There are a few half unfinished manuscripts on other subjects to finish, and I turn sailor again -- or something else...." So wrote a despondent James Fenimore Cooper in 1833, just as he was about to return home after seven years in Europe. Settling temporarily in New York City, Cooper bought back his father's old home in Cooperstown (Otsego Hall) and remodeled it in the Gothic style (pointed windows, towers, and fake battlements). By 1835 he and his family were permanently established back in the village of his childhood. One of those manuscripts was "a little work, of an entirely new kind, nearly done" -- "The Monikins." It was, Cooper wrote in 1836, "my favorite book," and it is certainly one of his strangest. It would be his last "novel" for several years.

The Story: Sir John Goldencalf has risen from nothing -- his father, a foundling, had became enormously wealthy by inside trading on the stock market and marrying his employer's daughter. Determined to do good in the world, Sir John buys himself a seat in Parliament, and invests in economic enterprises all over the British empire, on the theory that only those with a "social stake" in the economy can truly represent the people. He is in love with a girl from a good family. But his life is about to change.

In Paris, Sir John and a casual acquaintance (Captain Noah Poke of Connecticut) rescue four monkeys from an organ-grinder, only to discover that they come from a civilization of talking monkeys ("monikins") living in Antarctica. Sir John escorts them home (in Captain Poke's ship "The Walrus") where he finds the twin monkey nations of Leaphigh and its former colony Leaplow. "Leap high" is a parody of aristocrat-run England, filled with snobs and empty formalities. "Leap low" is America, with political parties jockeying corruptly for power, and such a passion for equality that all its citizens have their tails (the seat of monkey intelligence) cut off to exactly the same length.

Sir John and Captain Poke explore these strange lands for months, encountering various adventures along the way and enduring the hardships of a land where nobody eats anything but nuts. Finally there begins a "great moral eclipse," in which all true values are replaced by the all-mighty dollar -- and our travellers flee back home to Europe where -- might it all have been a delirious dream?

Sir John concludes with a list of what he has learned in his travels:: as "That of all the 'ocracies (aristocracy and democracy included) hypocrisy is the most flourishing," and "That truth is a comparative and local property, being much influenced by circumstances; particularly by climate and public opinion."

Significance: "The Monikins" is a sarcastic, sometimes labored, but often hilarious satire on British and American society and politics -- a forerunner of both "Animal Farm" and "The Planet of the Apes." Reviewers at the time were not amused -- most were infuriated -- but modern readers will find it remarkably perceptive.

Finding it: "The Monikins" was reprinted separately once (in 1990) but must otherwise be sought in sets of Cooper's works, or on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: We begin examining Cooper's five travel books based on his seven years in Europe -- some of them masterpieces of travel writing.

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19. Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland. Travel (1836) [From The Freeman's Journal, December 14, 2001]

Background: In 1835, back home permanently in Cooperstown, Cooper turned to a series of travel books based on his seven years in Europe (1826-33). He made use of his extensive travel journals as well as of his phenomenal ability to recall places and events. All five books use the format of imaginary letters to friends back home, but they differ considerably in content. Some are mostly travelogue, with occasional digressions. Others comment extensively on the European political, economic, and cultural scene -- always addressed to an American audience.

The Story: Cooper's first travel book is based on a summer (July-October 1828) that the Cooper family spent near Bern, and making excursions through Switzerland's magnificent Alpine scenery.

The Cooper family (including five children and Cooper's 18-year old nephew William Yeardley Cooper, who had come to Europe as Cooper's secretary and copyist) had left Paris by carriage in early July, 1828. They settled at a villa (La Lorraine) outside the Swiss capital of Bern. From there the older members of the family (James, his wife, his 15-year old daughter Susan, and William) made two week-long excursions through Switzerland's mountains, travelling by boat, carriage, on horseback, and on foot. Then, leaving the family at La Lorraine, James Fenimore Cooper went on two trips alone, accompanied only by a guide. The first was a strenuous 10-day hike through the Alps to the source of the Rhine; the second a trip by boat around Lake Geneva. Cooper was impressed by the pilgrim shrine at Einsiedeln, which he would use as the setting for part of his novel "The Heidenmauer."

As snows began to fall, Cooper packed up his family, and took them over the mountain passes (still infested with bandits) to Florence in Italy. It would be several years before they saw Paris again.

Significance: Cooper's first travel book is mostly travelogue -- a detailed account of adventures amid Switzerland's magnificent scenery, picturesque peasants, and sometimes primitive accommodations. We follow Cooper, and share his impressions, as he makes his way among the lakes and mountains that have made Switzerland world-famous. His unique ability to "paint scenery in words" is here seen at its best. It would be easy to retrace Cooper's steps today -- even stay where he stayed -- and the going would be a lot easier! The Hotel Baren in Langenthal, outside Bern, which Cooper found more than usually hospitable, is still very much in business and proud of its Cooper connection.

Finding it: Originally titled "Sketches in Switzerland", this first Cooper travel book has been reprinted several times. However, the only edition easily available today is that published in 1980 as "Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland" by the State University of New York Press in Albany -- with extensive illustrations, notes, and useful maps of the Coopers' various itineraries.

Next Week: 1832: The Coopers live in Paris, travel up the Rhine, and return to Switzerland for a second vacation.

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20. Gleanings in Europe: The Rhine. Travel (1836) [From The Freeman's Journal, February 1, 2002]

Background: Cooper's second travel book jumps ahead four years, to February-October 1832. It covers three episodes in Cooper's European sojourn: life in Paris in the Spring of 1832; a trip through Belgium, up the Rhine to Zurich, and through Switzerland to Geneva; and a second Swiss vacation at Vevey on the shores of Lake Geneva.

In a sense, however, this book revolves about General LaFayette, the French democrat who had been a hero of the American Revolution. Soon after Cooper's arrival in Paris in 1826, LaFayette became his close friend and mentor. When LaFayette returned to public life with the French "July Revolution" of 1830, Cooper found himself caught up in French affairs. Early 1832 saw not only a cholera epidemic, but an abortive revolt against the new French King Louis Philippe, and an influx of Polish refugees fleeing from the Russians.

The Story:The first seven "letters" (like its predecessor, the book is in the form of imaginary letters to friends at home) deal with French political and social affairs in early 1832, as Cooper lived and observed them, as well as with life in Paris during a troubled time.

In July, the Cooper family returned to tourist mode for two months. Accompanied by his wife and five children -- Susan, the eldest, was now 19 -- Cooper travelled through Belgium, stopping off at the resort town of Spa, and continued to Cologne and up the Rhine through Wurtemberg to Zurich in Switzerland, and then west to Geneva. This section of the book (some nine "letters") is devoted largely to travel narrative, personal adventures and impressions, and descriptions of scenery and historic sites in Cooper's inimitable "painterly" style.

The last section (ten "letters") takes place in September-October 1832 at "Mon Repos," a villa in Vevey on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Here the family boned up on local lore (including the periodic wine festival that would form the centerpiece of Cooper's novel "The Headsman"), and boated on the lake. James made an excursion to the famous Great Saint Bernard Pass in the Alps. As winter approached the family returned to Paris, to renew their friendship with LaFayette.

Significance: While it includes a lot of fine descriptive writing reminiscent of his "Switzerland," "The Rhine" is much more a book about culture, politics, current events, and history. As always, Cooper speaks out frankly -- often controversially -- on a wide variety of subjects. He not only describes Europe, but makes important comparisons with life in America. Readers will get a vivid impression both of the regions through which Cooper and his family travel, and of the political and cultural issues of the time. Cooper has gone beyond the traditional realm of the "travel narrative" to open a window into the intellectual and cultural world of 1832.

Finding it: Originally titled "Sketches of Switzerland (Second Series)," it was reprinted in 1986 as "Gleanings in Europe: The Rhine", by the SUNY Press at Albany. Originally placed on-line by the French National Library. For on-line text see Links Page.

Next Week: We return to Cooper's first impressions of France in 1826-28.

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21. Gleanings in Europe: France. Travel (1837) [From The Freeman's Journal, February 8, 2002]

Background: For his third travel book, Cooper went back to his first impressions of Europe. The Cooper family left America on June 1, 1826, on the sailing ship "Hudson," and arrived in Southampton, England a full month later. After a brief visit (largely business) in England, they crossed the Channel (by paddle-wheel steamer) to France, and went on to Paris. Here Cooper rented an apartment upstairs from a girls' school in which he placed his four daughters. In the summer of 1826 Cooper rented a villa for five months at St. Ouen, outside Paris.

Cooper arrived in France as a celebrity -- the "American Sir Walter Scott," -- and was soon drawn into the glittering literary life of the reactionary Bourbon monarchy that had been restored to power in France after the fall of Napoleon in 1815. Cooper also made the acquaintance of General LaFayette, the French hero of the American Revolution, who became his friend and -- in some degree -- a surrogate father.

Paris would remain the family's home base until 1828. But as always, much of Cooper's time was spent in writing -- during this period he finished "The Prairie," "The Red Rover," and his first important non-fiction work, "Notions of the Americans."

The Story: Like his other travel books, "France" takes the form of imaginary letters -- this time addressed to real friends and relatives at home in America (though none are based on actual letters). But often they describe aspects of French society that might particularly interest the addressees. The book covers just two years, from 1826 until 1828, when the Coopers moved on to Switzerland and Italy.

"France" is partly a vivid account of the Cooper family's first impressions abroad (though written with the hindsight of seven years in Europe), and Cooper's lively anecdotes reflect the excitement, adventures, and occasional misunderstandings of seeing a foreign land for the first time.

But this book goes beyond mere tourism to provide a detailed, colorful, and often ironic picture of life in the Paris of 1826-28, where the tottering Bourbon regime ruled in faded magnificence over the restive nation that was to overthrow it two years later. Cooper, as a great American celebrity, was promptly drawn into France's leading intellectual circles -- where he met many literary and aristocratic notables, was invited everywhere, and had a superb vantage point from which to observe French life.

Significance: As one scholar has noted, "No other of Cooper's works...brings us closer to his speaking voice or puts us more directly in contact with the man himself, with all his idiosyncratic preoccupations, his quick resentments, his restless curiosity, his surprising humor, and his nobility of principle. The most interesting of the many notables to whom "France" introduces us is, beyond question, Mr. Cooper."

Finding it: Rarely reprinted since 1837 (when it was titled simply "Gleanings in Europe"), "France" is available in the SUNY Press edition of 1983, which has the great advantage of carefully identifying the many personalities whom Cooper describes but does not always name. Recently placed on-line (in English) by the French National Library. For on-line text see Links Page.

Next Week: A tour of England, encounters with British intellectuals, and harsh words for British aristocratic society.

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22. Gleanings in Europe: England. Travel (1837) [From The Freeman's Journal, February 15, 2002]

Background: In 1828 Cooper, accompanied by his wife and son Paul (the four girls stayed at school in Paris) spent three months in England. It was in large part a business trip -- to see his London publisher. But Cooper was a celebrity in England as well as in France, and he was wined and dined. (Mrs. Cooper, whose father had recently died, was in "deep mourning" and refused all social engagements.) In particular, Cooper was taken under the wing of the poet Samuel Rogers, whose breakfast entertainment of writers and artists was famous. He also renewed his acquaintance with Sir Walter Scott.

The Coopers made one trip inland -- to Hertfordshire to visit Mrs. Cooper's oldest sister, who was married to John L. McAdam, the engineer who invented and popularized the modern paved ("macadam") road. After three months in England they returned to Paris, and their daughters, via Holland and Belgium.

The Story: Like its predecessor "France", "England" is written in the form of imaginary letters to real friends and relatives at home. Beginning with travelers account of the Coopers' arrival in London, the letters become increasingly theoretical, as Cooper describes and analyzes (usually critically) every aspect of English society, culture, and politics. However serious in tone, each letter also includes accounts of visits to British institutions, entertainment by English celebrities, and anecdotes of London life.

While content to be invited into English society, Cooper remained almost touchily conscious of his American-ness, and often bristled at the condescension with which the English so often treated Americans. He was also highly critical of a political system that seemed still firmly under the thumb of a landed aristocracy (this was, of course, before the reforms of 1832). Though generally sticking to the three months (March-May 1828) in which the book is set, Cooper freely makes comparisons with countries he was only to visit later, as well as occasionally referring to events occurring between 1828 and 1837, when "England" was published.

Significance: Cooper's "primary interest was political and social analysis. Americans, he believed...did not know the truth about British society, and they lacked the sophistication" to admit American faults while preserving its democratic institutions. In the view of one respected English journal, the "Spectator," Cooper's book was "unquestionably the most searching and thoughtful, not to say philosophical, (book ever) published by an American on England."

Cooper considered "England" the best of his travel books so far. He had expected it to be controversial in England, but was startled and angered when it was (with some exceptions) trashed by the press at home. American reviews proved all too clearly just how correct Cooper was in believing that American cultural taste was still controlled from London. They differed from those of England in one respect. Cooper was denounced by some British conservatives as a vulgar, half-educated upstart from the ex-colonies who dared to criticize his betters; American journals accused him of being anti-American and an aristocratic toady.

Finding it: Available today in the SUNY Albany edition of 1982.

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23. Gleanings in Europe: Italy. Travel (1838) [From The Freeman's Journal, February 22, 2002]

Background: On October 11, 1828, two carriages carrying the entire Cooper family crossed the Simplon Pass in the Alps and entered Italy. For James Fenimore Cooper it was love at first sight -- with Italy's art and history, its people, and its always picturesque scenery. For him, the 18 months spent in Italy were perhaps the happiest days of his life -- and Cooper spent the rest of his years wistfully wishing that he could afford to return. It was no accident, perhaps, that in writing his travel books he saved Italy for the last.

The Coopers first settled for the winter in Florence, where they were immediately drawn into the rather aristocratic foreign colony there, renting an apartment in the Palazzo Ricasoli (now a hotel and student hostel favored by Americans studying abroad) and, when spring came, a villa on the outskirts of the city. At the end of July, following publication of his frontier novel "The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish," Cooper chartered a 40-ton sailboat to carry his family down the Italian coast to Naples.

August through November were spent at Sorrento, in a rented palace overlooking the Bay of Naples (today the Imperial Hotel Tramontano), writing "The Water-Witch," and taking his family on pleasure excursions by boat, donkey, and on foot around the Sorrento Peninsula and to nearby tourist sites like Capri and Pompeii.

The Coopers spent that winter in Rome and, in the spring, began a leisurely trek up Italy's Adriatic coast to Venice (which deeply impressed him) and on to Germany.

The Story: Cooper said he wanted "Italy" to be "more poetical than...Switzerland...and without politics...a picturesque book...." Perhaps reflecting this, "Italy" returns to the format of letters to unspecified recipients, rather than imaginary letters addressed to real people with specific interests.

"Italy" is both the most personal and the most atmospheric of Cooper's travel books: an account of events, anecdotes, people, places, works of art, and scenery that always reflects his own reactions and feelings. Though Cooper continues to compare Europe with America, he says little about Italy's complex political issues (it was still broken up into half a dozen sovereign nations). His real purpose was to share a country he had come to love, rather than to analyze it.

Significance: Not surprisingly, perhaps, Cooper was not satisfied with the result, though contemporary reviewers, like many modern readers, considered it the happiest and most appealing of his five travel books. "Italy" reflects the sights, sounds, and even tastes of the Mediterranean world, and the personal pleasure Cooper takes in them, in ways reminiscent of the modern popular books by Peter Mayle about Provence and Francis Mayes about Tuscany. Out of Cooper's Italian experience would come two novels: "The Bravo," set in 18th century Venice, and "The Wing-and-Wing, " a sea story set along the Italian coast during the Napoleonic wars. And with "Italy" Cooper's travel series came to an end, as he went on to other writing projects.

Finding it: SUNY Press in Albany published an excellent edition in 1981.

Next Week: Cooper sums up his political and cultural creed in "The American Democrat."

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24. The American Democrat Politica and Social Commentary(1838). [From The Freeman's Journal, March 1, 2002]

Background: "The American Democrat: or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America" was published by H. & E. Phinney in Cooperstown in 1838, and Cooper originally hoped that it would be adopted by New York State as a civics textbook. He clearly wrote it with Alexis de Toqueville's (1835) "Democracy in America" in mind. Although the two men never met, Cooper had provided Toqueville with letters of introduction to New York politicians for use on his famous trip. "The American Democrat" is a short and readable collection of 45 essays that remains the most succinct statement of Cooper's social and political views.

The Story: "The American Democrat" seeks to demonstrate that "without civilization and government, the strong would oppress the weak, and, with them, an inducement to exertion must be left, by bestowing rewards on talents, industry, and success." Cooper analyzes American republican democracy, and contrasts it with the monarchies and aristocracies of old Europe. He then goes on to examine in detail many different aspects of American political, economic, and cultural institutions and habits. As in all his writings, however, his real concern is with ethics and personal integrity.

In his introduction, Cooper states that his book "is written more in the spirit of censure than of praise, for its aim is correction; and virtues bring their own reward, while errors are dangerous." What he most fears is that American democracy has been undermined by unscrupulous politicians who promote themselves by stirring up public opinion in a money-grubbing and irresponsible press, resulting in a nation with "one party effecting its ends by fulsome, false and meretricious eulogiums, in which it does not itself believe, and the other giving utterance to its discontent in useless and unmanly complaints."

In examining American culture Cooper provides fascinating discussions of American language and pronunciation, social behavior, American humor and its use to ward off controversy, and our tendency to bow down before public opinion.

Finally, Cooper states that "the time must come when American slavery shall cease," and he disputes claims that it enjoys permanent constitutional protection. But he fears that emancipation will lead to "two races...whose feelings will be embittered by inextinguishable hatred," a dilemma for which he finds no easy solution.

Significance: Since the 1930s, "The American Democrat" has awakened new interest as a concise, enlightening, and sometimes controversial examination of what America really means. In 2002, after over a century and half, it remains readable, thoughtful, and often as applicable to the American present as to the American past.

Finding it: A deluxe edition (hardback and paperback), with a 1931 introduction by H.L. Mencken, is kept in print -- at very low prices -- by Liberty Classics of Indianapolis, and it is also included in "The American Democrat and other Political Writings" (Regnery, 2000). A Penguin Classics paperback edition was published in 1989.

Next Week: Cooper tells the story of our village in "The Chronicles of Cooperstown."

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25. The Chronicles of Cooperstown Local History (1838). [From The Freeman's Journal, March 8, 2002]

Background: By 1836 James Fenimore Cooper was settled for life at Otsego Hall in the center of Cooperstown, and he turned his attention to the history of the community founded by his father, and in which he had passed his boyhood. The result was printed here in Cooperstown in 1838 by H. & E. Phinney. In writing "The Chronicles of Cooperstown" Cooper made use of "authentic publick records, private documents, more especially those in possession of the Cooper family, and living witnesses, whose memories and representations might be confided in." He also carefully examined the files of the early newspapers: "The Otsego Herald" (1795) and "The Freeman's Journal" (1808). Cooper's stated purpose was "that posterity may know the leading facts connected with the origin and settlement of the village of Cooperstown," as well as to correct a few "erroneous notions," and provide "a convenient work of reference."

The Story: Cooper tells the story of Cooperstown chronologically, with lively anecdotes of people and places -- some of them, like the Red Lion Tavern ("The Bold Dragoon"), immortalized in his classic novel "The Pioneers" (1823) describing life here in 1795.

He carries his chronicles up to the present (1838), when, he notes, Cooperstown's 1,300 residents occupy 169 homes, and make use of 62 stores and shops, 5 churches, a bank, a court house, and a fire station. "Cooperstown has two weekly newspapers, the "Freeman's Journal" and the "Otsego Republican," the former of which has always been esteemed for a respectable literary taste." And Cooper describes and praises Lake Otsego, its famed fishing, and the scenic beauties of its surrounding hills.

Cooper concludes by predicting Cooperstown's future. "The beauty of its situation, the lake, the purity of the air...seem destined to make it...a place of resort, for those who live less for active life, than for its elegance and ease.... Were an effort made, by the creation of proper lodging houses, the establishment of reading rooms and libraries, and the embellishment of a few of the favorable spots, in the way of public promenades and walks..., it would be quite easy to bring the place into request, as one of resort for the inhabitants of the large towns during the warm months...."

What Cooperstown needs, he says, are "bed and breakfasts": "If a few persons...who possessed proper buildings, were to fit up rooms, as parlours and bed-rooms, a set in each house, furnish the breakfasts and tea..., persons of fortune...would pay liberal prices, and the village...would reap the rewards of a large expenditure."

Significance: "The Chronicles of Cooperstown" is one of the first local histories written in America, and it has been widely imitated all over the nation. It remains the starting point, and an invaluable reference, for the history of our village.

Finding it: Reprinted in many later village histories -- most recently in Harold Hollis' "History of Cooperstown" (NYSHA, 1976). Also on-line in S.M. Shaw, "A Centennial Offering....being a Brief History of Cooperstown" (1886), at the Cornell University "Making of America" website. For on-line text see Links Page. And I have prepared a detailed analytical index to "The Chronicles" (on-line at the James Fenimore Cooper Society website).

Next Week: Memories of the total eclipse of the sun in Cooperstown in 1806.

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26. The Eclipse Autobiographical Vignette (1838). [From The Freeman's Journal, April 5, 2002]

Background: In the summer of 1806 a 16-year old boy named James Cooper (he had not yet adopted the middle name of Fenimore) was living with his father at Otsego Hall in Cooperstown. He was not a happy young man -- he had been expelled from Yale College after a fight with another student, and sent home in disgrace. On June 16, 1806, Cooperstown -- for so far as I know the only time in its history -- was the scene of a total eclipse of the sun. It was an experience that somehow deeply affected young Cooper, and became a turning point in his life.

Cooper's account of the eclipse was first published in 1869, long after Cooper's death. According to his daughter Susan Fenimore Cooper, who found the manuscript among her father's papers, "The Eclipse" was written in 1833, when Cooper was still living in Europe. However, it contains so many specific details included in an article about the eclipse published in the June 19, 1806 issue of the "Otsego Herald," that I am convinced it must have been written in 1838, while Cooper was searching the "Herald" files as preparation for writing "The Chronicles of Cooperstown."

The Story: Cooper recounts the story of the Cooperstown solar eclipse in vivid fashion, describing how the villagers had awaited the event eagerly for weeks, and how -- as darkness suddenly fell on the morning of June 16 -- the cows came clattering back across the bridge from their pastures in Middlefield, and the hens settled themselves to sleep.

Among those who witnessed the eclipse was Stephen Arnold, a Burlington schoolteacher who had been sentenced to death for the murder of a child in his household, and who had spent a year in the crude log jail house (where Augur's Bookstore now stands) awaiting a final decision on his fate. Young Cooper was brought to see Arnold, as he was taken from his cell in shackles to view the eclipse from a nearby building. The sight of his "haggard face and fettered arms...was an incident to stamp on the memory for life. It was a lesson not lost on me."

As the darkness grew complete, Cooper remembered that "it seemed as if the Father of the Universe had visibly, and almost palpably, veiled his face in wrath." Perhaps he was also thinking of another wrathful father -- his own -- who had not yet forgiven him for his disgrace at Yale. But then, in the darkness, Cooper's mind wandered and, as he told it, "my thoughts turned to the sea.... My fancy was busy with pictures of white-sailed schooners, and brigs, and ships, gliding like winged spirits over the darkened waves."

Two months later James Cooper ran away to sea -- and began a career in which he would both invent the sea novel and become the first great American naval historian.

Significance: "The Eclipse" is a short article, filled with memories that were clearly very important to James Fenimore Cooper, and it remains a compelling account of a big moment in the early history of Cooperstown.

Finding it: "The Eclipse" was published in the September 1869 issue of "Putnam's Magazine." Never reprinted, it can be found today on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: A return to the novel, and to the sea, with "Homeward Bound."

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27. Homeward Bound; or, The Chase Novel (1838). [From The Freeman's Journal, April 12, 2002]

Background: Although Cooper had decided four years earlier to write no more novels, he found himself unable to resist the temptation to tell a story. But it was a more thoughtful, more cynical Cooper than the author of the often nostalgic "The Pioneers." And it was a Cooper with a stronger determination to describe his countrymen's faults, in the hope of helping rectify them, even at the cost of sales and of public support. Nevertheless, he now presented his reading public with a sequel to "The Pioneers" -- a sequel that has been almost forgotten because it does not include Natty Bumppo. It all started innocently enough, with what turned out to be a new novel of the sea.

The Story: The Effingham family (Edward, his daughter Eve, and his worldly bachelor cousin John) are descendants of Oliver Edwards Effingham and Elizabeth Temple, and they are returning home to Templeton (Cooperstown) -- their mental horizons and cultural views expanded by 14 years residence in Europe. They depart from London in a sail "packet boat" (an early passenger ship), the "Montauk", commanded by the honest old sailor Captain Truck.

Aboard are a mixed bag of passengers, thrown together by the intimacies of life at sea. Some -- both passengers and crew -- quickly prove to be mysterious characters hiding secrets from their pasts. Anything but mysterious, however, is the raucous Steadfast Dodge -- American newspaper editor extraordinary -- returning from a brief European visit with a mind crammed with wrong facts and prejudiced opinions, picked up from waiters and cab drivers, which he passes on to eager readers at home as deep analysis of the European scene. Stern in his condemnation of foreigners, Steadfast Dodge is a staunch believer in "democracy" at home -- which he interprets as blind obedience to public opinion, however misguided. He quickly begins to spar verbally with the truly informed and enlightened Effinghams.

The "Montauk" finds she is being followed by a British warship, and in an effort to elude her runs into a storm and is shipwrecked on the edge of the Sahara in western Africa. The adventures that follow, as the shipwrecked passengers and crew seek to rebuild their vessel, and to evade marauding Arab bandits, are in the best tradition of nautical adventure. Not surprisingly, perhaps, at the end of the story the Effingham family arrives safely in New York.

Significance: What Cooper originally intended as a first volume got stretched out, as he wrote it, into a whole book. Like so many other of his novels, it initiated a whole new genre of writing -- the passenger ship described as a microcosm of society. But "Homeward Bound; or The Chase: A Tale of the Sea" is also a rousing adventure story. What Cooper forgot was that many readers would interpret it as autobiographical, with the Effinghams speaking directly for himself.

Finding it:Available able primarily in odd volumes from Cooper sets, there is also a 1988 hardbound edition from Mid-Peninsula Library of Kingsford, MI. "Homeward Bound" is also available on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: The Effinghams return to New York City, and to Templeton (Cooperstown), and are appalled at what they find in "Home as Found."

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28. Home as Found Novel (1838). [From The Freeman's Journal, April 19, 2002]

Background: In writing "Homeward Bound" Cooper found he had unintentionally (and carried away by his love of sea adventures) filled a whole book before the Effinghams reached home after their 14 years living (like Cooper and his family) in Europe. So, as he would do again, he simply wrote "the end" and started the story up again as a second book. The result was "Home as Found," one of the most important and most controversial of Cooper's novels, and one of very special interest to those of us who live on the shores of Lake Otsego.

The Story: The Effingham family, including Edward, his daughter Eve, and his bachelor cousin John, have returned to New York City in 1835 after fourteen years abroad, and find a society grown increasing vulgar and money-driven, its cultural life often reduced to trivial amusement and social climbing. Only a handful of Americans have real cultural attainments, and they are lying low. Many folk consider themselves social sophisticates, although they commit one ludicrous social and intellectual error after another. Even the best of them, like Eve Effingham's new friend Grace Van Cortlandt, display their ignorance of European culture. Many are raucously patriotic, though a few can find nothing good about their own nation. Steadfast Dodge, the editor who has accompanied the Effinghams home, is in his element. Their urban stay is climaxed by the (real life) great fire of 1835 that destroyed much of the city.

After the cultural wasteland of New York high society, the Effinghams (and their servants and friends) proceed home to Templeton -- now a thriving village on the shore of Lake Otsego. They have remodeled their old family home (called "The Wigwam") in the center of the village, with the aid of an able but crudely self-aggrandizing New Englander, Aristabulus Bragg. Alas, they find many of the villagers uncouth and disrespectful. As in "The Pioneers," we are exposed to a series of local scenes: apprentice boys illegally playing baseball on the Effingham grounds; celebration of the Fourth of July (with what was apparently a special Cooperstown twist); the illiterate but nosy Abbott family, who take their names from ancient classics while they pry into their neighbors' affairs. And some of the mysterious characters from the sea voyage show up, making possible a plot of secret identity and -- of course-- romance.

Brawling Templeton contrasts with the tranquil Lake Otsego, where the contemplative "Commodore" (based on a real Cooperstown character) angles eternally for a giant fish while lamenting the days when Natty Bumppo, now only a memory, roamed the forests. Lake and village come together in a thinly-disguised version of the 1837 "Three Mile Point" controversy, when villagers briefly tried to oust the Cooper family from their family picnic spot at what the novel calls "Fishing Point."

Significance: Often called America's first "novel of manners," "Home as Found" is a scathing and often very funny portrait of American society and its pretensions that infuriated American readers at the time, but is both readable and instructive today.

Finding it: In odd volumes from old sets of Cooper's works, it was reissued in paperback by Capricorn Books in 1961 (alas, now out of print). "Home as Found" is also available on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: Cooper as America's first great naval historian.

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29. History of the Navy of the United States of America History (1839). [From The Freeman's Journal, April 16, 2002]

Background: For many years, James Fenimore Cooper had been gathering materials for a major history of the United States Navy -- in which he had served as a Midshipman from 1808-1811. He had made many friends in the Navy. He kept in touch with them, and one, Captain (later Rear Admiral) William Branford Shubrick, became perhaps his closest lifelong friend. After Cooper's return from Europe, he renewed his naval friendships, and spent many hours in Washington, D.C. searching through the Navy Archives. Cooper was convinced that American security depended primarily on its navy, but also that our fleet, and its men, had been repeatedly ignored and deprived of essential resources by a careless Government.

The Story: In two volumes (totaling 875 pages), Cooper tells the story of America's wars at sea, beginning with the earliest colonies, and carrying the story through to the end of the War of 1812. His style is that of a narrative, though it is interspersed with frequent tables listing ships, officers, and naval expenditures. Each battle or skirmish has been carefully researched, and recounted with much of the verve of Cooper's fictional writings -- though his accounts are always so scrupulously balanced as to win praise from some of America's old naval adversaries. The reader therefore often comes away feeling that he or she has been present at the action.

At the same time, Cooper gives ample coverage to the more mundane matters of ship construction, naval budgets, personnel policies, and political disputes -- that lie behind the exploits and failures of American ships at sea. Here he is an unabashed supporter of the Navy, and of the vital importance of giving it full encouragement.

Most of the book is given over to the events of the Revolution, of the undeclared naval war with France in the 1790s, the naval enterprises against the Barbary Pirates of North Africa, and of course the War of 1812.

Cooper's Naval History went through a number of up-dated editions (one printed here in Cooperstown). Cooper himself edited an "abridged" (to 447 pages) edition in 1841 aimed at the general public. New editions continued to appear, even after Cooper's death, with an added volume carrying the story up to 1856.

Significance: Until well thorough the 19th Century, Cooper's "History of the Navy of the United States of America," remained the standard work on the U.S. Navy -- and one crusty old Admiral is reported to have snorted that it was the only history book a sailor needed to know. Cooper hoped, without result, that Congress would appropriate funds to place copies on every US warship. There may have been many seamen who never realized that the author of the famous Naval History also wrote novels. Even today, it remains a classic of naval history.

Finding it: Long available only as a fairly rare (and expensive) book, there have been a number of recent reprints. Cooper's own abridged 1841 edition was reprinted in 1988 by Scholar's Facsimiles & Reprints, and again in 2001 by the United States Naval Institute. A 3-volume set (the complete 1856 version) was published by University Press of the Pacific, also in 2001.

Next Week: Cooper resurrects Natty Bumppo as "The Pathfinder."

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30. The Pathfinder; or, The Inland Sea Novel (1840). [From The Freeman's Journal, May 4, 2002]

Background: By 1839 James Fenimore Cooper was at a crossroads. He had completed and published the non-fiction works he had planned, and his attempts at writing satire had been soundly rejected by a self-satisfied American public. Even more to the point, Cooper was in financial difficulties -- the financial crash of 1837 had badly affected the book trade. The amount American authors could expect to earn from a novel had dropped almost ten-fold.

For Cooper the obvious answer was to go back to the themes that had proved so popular in the 1820s -- Natty Bumppo and The Sea. So in "The Pathfinder; or, The Inland Sea" he combined both: Indians and sailors, wilderness and waves. And he resurrected Natty Bumppo -- who had died, a very old man, at the end of "The Prairie" a dozen years before. He set his new story in 1759, at a British garrison at Oswego on Lake Ontario (where Cooper had served in the US Navy in 1808). And, making use of accounts of the Belgian Jesuit missionary Louis Hennepin (1640-1701), who discovered Niagara Falls and built the first ship to sail the Great Lakes, he created an imaginary freshwater naval war between France and England.

The Story: It is two years after "The Last of the Mohicans." Mabel Duncan and her opinionated uncle -- an "old salt" named "Cap" -- are heading to Oswego to join her father, a Sergeant in the British garrison there. Natty Bumppo (Pathfinder), accompanied by his old Indian friend Chingachgook and a young freshwater sailor named Jasper Western, rescue them from a treacherous Indian guide, and escort them through many adventures to Oswego. There, it turns out that Mabel's father wants her to marry his old friend Natty -- who gradually falls in love with her himself.

Adventures follow as war breaks out between England and France. On land there is frontier Indian fighting. On the waters of Lake Ontario, Jasper Western commands the small British warship "Scud" as it clashes with French ships. But "The Pathfinder" is also concerned with the tense, competitive social life of the Oswego garrison, troubled by feuding officers, social-climbing wives, and the beautiful, virtuous Mabel who is "only a Sergeant's daughter." And an unhappy triangle develops, as Natty is torn between his feelings for Mabel and his duties as an Army Scout, and Mabel must decide between honoring her father's wishes with Natty, or following her heart with Jasper.

Since -- as Cooper's readers already knew -- Natty is really not cut out for matrimony, an alternative romantic solution is found as the adventure winds up.

Significance: If "The Pathfinder" did not attain as much immediate success as the earlier Leatherstocking Tales, the public was delighted to welcome Natty back, and demanded more. Cooper happily returned to composing novels, and thus putting food on his family's table. But the Natty Bumppo of "The Pathfinder" has changed -- Cooper has become more concerned with Natty the man than with Natty the frontier philosopher; with the workings of everyday society more than the American epic.

Finding it: Readily available in many editions, and on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: Cooper sets sail with Christopher Columbus in "Mercedes of Castile."

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31. Mercedes of Castile; or, The Voyage to Cathay Novel (1840). [From The Freeman's Journal, May 24, 2002]

Background: Back on his track as a writer of Romances, James Fenimore Cooper turned to what he undoubtedly hoped would be an easy success -- the story of Christopher Columbus. 1492 had become a hot topic in America, thanks in large part to the publication of Washington Irving's "Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus" (1828) and William Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella" (1838). Cooper was respected and admired as the creator of the sea novel. What could be better than a novel about Columbus' famous voyage! Alas.....

The Story: "Mercedes of Castile; or, The Voyage to Cathay" closely follows the historical record set forth by Irving and Prescott -- introducing two fictional characters to play the necessary roles of young lovers, and a number of secondary parts. Dona Maria de las Mercedes de Valverde is a beautiful young orphan in the household of Queen Isabella. Don Luis de Bobadilla is a handsome young nobleman with a reputation for getting himself in trouble. As Spain occupies Moslem Grenada early in 1492, Luis meets and is deeply impressed by Columbus, and he falls in love with Mercedes. To prove his devotion and his respectability, Luis signs aboard Columbus's crew -- using a pseudonym (that of a real member of the crew) to disguise his noble status. Columbus sets sail, and eventually reaches the new world.

There, on the Island of Santo Domingo, Luis encounters Ozema, a beautiful young native girl who looks just like Mercedes. He rescues her from assorted perils and, since she is in danger of being killed if she remains among her fellow Indians in America, he brings her back home to Spain. Virtuous though his morals may be, neither Mercedes nor Queen Isabella are amused when Luis shows up with Ozema in tow. Needless to say, however, this thorny problem is resolved before the last chapter.

Significance: In his honest effort to transcribe history accurately, Cooper succeeded only in writing a sometime excruciatingly boring narrative. It didn't help that he knew little of Spain, and had only a couple of dry histories as background to Spanish culture during the 15th century. It takes Cooper almost the entire first volume (Cooper novels were originally published in two volumes) to introduce all the characters, and to trudge through the complex court intrigues that led to Queen Isabella's giving her support to Columbus' apparently mad scheme of sailing west to China. Not until volume two does Columbus leaves the Canary Islands to begin his great leap across the Atlantic. And though Christopher Columbus is duly presented as a faultless American hero -- his speech and manners are all too pedestrian.

Even after Columbus finally sets sail, Cooper's narrative often reads less like a novel than the transcript of the log. Only when the expedition has reached the New World, and Luis begins his adventures with the Indian princess, does the story begin to come to life. Back home again in Spain, the narrative bogs down once more as the social complexities of Luis' situation are unravelled.

Finding it: Only in complete sets of Cooper's novels. "Mercedes of Castile" is also available on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: Cooper creates The Glimmerglass in "The Deerslayer," a book that many consider his greatest novel.

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32. The Deerslayer; or, The First War-path Novel (1841). [From The Freeman's Journal, June 7, 2002]

Background: One evening in the summer of 1840, riding back from his Chalet Farm overlooking Lake Otsego, Cooper stopped and gazed out over the water. Turning to his daughter Susan, he remarked, "I must write one more book, dearie, about our little lake!" Soon afterward he began to write "The Deerslayer; or, The First Warpath." It would be the last of the five Leatherstocking Tales about the frontier scout Natty Bumppo -- but in this novel he is a very young Natty who is just entering manhood.

Unlike the more expansive earlier volumes in the series, "The Deerslayer" tells about a small handful of characters over a period of just one week, in a setting that is restricted to the waters and shores of Lake Otsego. And yet, though the novel is one of Cooper's longest, it is very carefully crafted, and is considered by many as Cooper's best, and as one of the masterpieces of American literature.

The Story: Young Natty, called "Deerslayer" (because he has not yet killed a man) has come to the Lake -- a hidden place of beauty in the wilderness known only as the Glimmerglass (mirror) -- to meet his Indian friend Chingachgook, whose fiancée has been carried off by hostile "Huron" Indians. The time is 1745, just as war has broken out between England and France for mastery of their North American colonies.

On the way, Natty has joined forces with Hurry Harry, a crude but handsome frontiersman interested only in money and women. When they arrive at the Glimmerglass, whose natural beauty fills Natty with awe and wonder, they find there the Hutter family, living in a fortified log "castle" built on stilts over the water. Old Tom Hutter is as vicious a man as Harry, but fiercely protective of his two grown daughters -- the beautiful, resourceful, and provocative Judith, and the pious, simple-minded Hetty.

The action of the story involves a series of conflicts, on water and ashore, with the band of hostile Huron Indians who have kidnapped Chingachgook's fiancee. Young Natty is faced with repeated physical and moral challenges as he seeks to protect Tom Hutter's daughters and to assist his Indian friend. As the story develops, the action moves gradually up the Western shore of the lake from Muskrat Point (today's Sailing Club), to Three Mile Point, and finally to Six Mile (Hickory Grove) Point where the novel reaches its violent climax. The violence not only ends the story, but in a sense represents the end of American innocence.

Significance: "The Deerslayer" is part fairy tale, part adventure story, and part a poetic evocation of natural beauty. At the same time it poses probing questions about individual and ethnic morality that seem almost centuries ahead of Cooper's times. But in its intensity, in its loving descriptions of atmosphere and water, of shores and forests, this favorite of Cooper's tales transcends mere storytelling.

Above all, "The Deerslayer" is a tribute to the beauty of a very particular lake, described in loving detail and with almost photographic accuracy.

Finding it: Readily available in many editions, and on-line. For on-line texts see Links Page.

Next Week: Back to sea -- and the clash of fleets -- in "The Two Admirals."

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33. The Two Admirals N