About Cooper's Writings

Updated July 2002

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Plots and Characters

• Plots and Characters in Cooper's fiction, with plot summaries for each novel and story, and an annotated list of characters, placed on line from Warren S. Walker, Plots and Characters in the Fiction of James Fenimore Cooper (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1978), with the kind permission of the author and publisher. NOTE: Plot Summaries are a useful reference, but are never a substitute for reading a book.

Susan Fenimore Cooper
Information about Cooper's writings by his oldest daughter and literary executor.

• (1883) Small Family Memories. A prime source for Cooper's early life (1816-1828), including his early writings.
• (1876-84) Introductions to 25 Cooper novels excerpted in Pages and Pictures from the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper (1861) and to 15 Cooper novels in the 1876-84 "Household Edition". Many contain information about the genesis and background of the novel concerned, and even Cooper's later appraisal of it.

Books about Cooper's Writings

• Axelrad, Allan M., History and Utopia: A Study of the World View of James Fenimore Cooper. Norwood, PA: Norwood Editions, 1978. Placed on-line with the permission of the author.
• Phinit-Akson, Helen [Dr. Helen James], Ritual and Aesthetic: The Influence of Europe on the Art of Fenimore Cooper. Bangkok, Thailand: Thammasat University Press, 1976. Placed on-line with the permission of the author.
• See also: Articles and Papers about James Fenimore Cooper.

Reference documents relating to Cooper's writings

• MacDougall, Hugh C. (James Fenimore Cooper Society), Index to The Chronicles of Cooperstown; An analytical Index to The Chronicles of Cooperstown, Cooper's 1838 history of Cooperstown, New York, with page citations to all editions published to date.
• MacDougall, Hugh C. (James Fenimore Cooper Society), The Cooper Epigraphs identifies the source of almost all the approximately 1000 epigraphs used by Cooper as chapter headings and on title pages. It is organized both by novel and by epigraph author.
• MacDougall, Hugh C. (James Fenimore Cooper Society), Reading The Pioneers as History considers the novel as social history.

Spoofs and Parodies

And on the lighter side..... [this subsection is under "construction"]

• (1834) “Cassio” (Edward Sherman Gould), The Man in the Claret-Coloured Coat to his countrymen. A satiric parody of Cooper's 1834 A Letter to his Countrymen.
• (1847) Thackeray, William Makepeace, The Stars and Stripes. A parody of Cooper's style originally published in Punch
• (1848) Lowell, James Russell, excerpt from A Fable for Critics. Portion of a longer poem satirizing American authors.
• (1867) Bret Harte, Francis, Muck-A-Muck: A Modern Indian Novel After Cooper. A short, light-hearted parody of Cooper's style
• (2000) O'Keefe, Katherine, The Prairie. A humorous poem about a student facing a Cooper paper