The French, who had settled North America before the English, controlled parts of Canada now known as the province of Quebec. The English controlled some parts of northern North America, known as Canada, as well as the Thirteen Colonies of what became the United States. The founding of the United States was a complex colonial battle between the English, the French, and an overlapping set of native tribes, most of whom had been displaced by the English and French over the course of the eighteenth century. During his lifetime and after his death, aged 62, he was recognized as perhaps the first great American man of letters.

Cooper also wrote non-fiction, including a volume on the history of the United States Navy. The Last of the Mohicans, for which Fenimore Cooper is most famous, was released in 1826, and three other “Deerslayer” novels followed. The earliest of the “Deerslayer” or “Leatherstocking” novels, entitled The Pioneers and featuring the adventures of Natty Bumppo, was released in 1823. Precaution, Fenimore Cooper’s first novel and the response to this “dare,” was published in 1820. Fenimore Cooper began writing after a “dare” laid down by his wife, Susan, about whether he could write something better novel than a novel Susan liked. After study, in his teens, at Yale-where he did not graduate, because of his early dismissal for violating the university’s rules-Fenimore Cooper served for several years in the US Navy, then came into the family’s fortune and settled back in New York City and in Cooperstown. Related to a line of Quakers who had emigrated from England to the Northeastern United States, James Fenimore Cooper grew up in upper-middle-class comfort on the shores of Lake Otsego, in a town planned and constructed by his father: Cooperstown, New York.

Last of the mohicans original book