James Fenimore Cooper : the early years / Wayne Franklin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Franklin, Wayne.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851.

Cooper, James Fenimore.

Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851--Childhood and youth.

Novelists, American--19th century--Biography.

Novelists, American.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource (xxxiv, 708 p., [16] p. of plates) ) ill., map.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) invented the key forms of American fiction-the Western, the sea tale, the Revolutionary War romance. Furthermore, Cooper turned novel writing from a polite diversion into a paying career. He influenced Herman Melville, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Francis Parkman, and even Mark Twain-who felt the need to flagellate Cooper for his "literary offenses." His novels mark the starting point for any history of our environmental conscience. Far from complicit in the cleansings of Native Americans that characterized the era, Cooper's fictions traced native losses to their economic sources.Perhaps no other American writer stands in greater need of a major reevaluation than Cooper. This is the first treatment of Cooper's life to be based on full access to his family papers. Cooper's life, as Franklin relates it, is the story of how, in literature and countless other endeavors, Americans in his period sought to solidify their political and cultural economic independence from Britain and, as the Revolutionary generation died, stipulate what the maturing republic was to become. The first of two volumes, James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years covers Cooper's life from his boyhood up to 1826, when, at the age of thirty-six, he left with his wife and five children for Europe.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE. The Vision

CHAPTER TWO. Lessons

CHAPTER THREE. The Voyage of the Stirling

CHAPTER FOUR. Midshipman James Cooper

CHAPTER FIVE. Love and War

CHAPTER SIX. Fenimore Farm

CHAPTER SEVEN. Gains and Losses

CHAPTER EIGHT. A Better Book

CHAPTER NINE. An American Tale

CHAPTER TEN. Legal Troubles

CHAPTER ELEVEN. Settlement

CHAPTER TWELVE. Taking Manhattan

CHAPTER THIRTEEN. Old Tales and New

CHAPTER FOURTEEN. Legends

CHAPTER FIFTEEN. Hawk-eye

CHAPTER SIXTEEN. Literary Business

Notes

Index

Notes:

"Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [523]-679) and index.

ISBN:

1-281-73480-2

9786611734800

0-300-13500-9

OCLC:

1024038010