American Author: Did You Know?

James Fenimore Cooper is one of America's first novelists. In his first series, The Littlepage Manuscripts, Corny Littlepage is the hero of the Satanstoe. Other books in the series, (written in two years) are The Chainbearer and The Redskins (today this title would be decried by many). All these novels deal with the anti-rent controversy (Helderberg War) of the 1840s. Cooper's strong political feelings in favor of the landed gentry progressively colored each book until the last is considered more of a diatribe than a novel.

Since he favored the "landed gentry" they obviously favored him, by publishing his books that espoused their needs with no care to the essence of a good novel. (Even in 1840, it paid for a writer to have connections).

Cooper's best known and hallmark Leatherstocking Series wasn't named for a character. The five books tell the career of "natural man" Natty Bumppo from his youth (Deerslayer) to his death (The Prairie). The Leatherstocking series also includes The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), and The Pathfinder (1840).