James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper was born in 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey, and grew up on the vast frontier estate his father had established in Cooperstown, New York, at the edge of the wilderness that would furnish the settings of his most famous novels. He attended Yale but was expelled for misconduct, served briefly in the Navy, and married into a wealthy family before turning to writing almost by accident, reportedly telling his wife he could produce a better novel than the one she was reading aloud. His second novel, The Spy, became the first American bestseller, and the Leatherstocking Tales, the five novels featuring Natty Bumppo, established him as the first major American novelist. This author hub collects 1 work in the Canon Compass ranking, led by The Last of the Mohicans.