James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper was an American novelist and social critic born on September 15, 1789, in Burlington, New Jersey. He was the eleventh of twelve children born to William Cooper, a wealthy landowner, and Elizabeth Fenimore Cooper. Cooper spent most of his childhood in Cooperstown, New York, a town founded by his father. Cooper attended Yale University but was expelled during his third year for misbehavior. He then joined the United States Navy and served as a midshipman for three years. After leaving the Navy, Cooper married Susan Augusta de Lancey, with whom he had five children. Cooper began his writing career in 1820 with the publication of his first novel, Precaution, which was not well-received. However, his second novel, The Spy, published in 1821, was a huge success and established Cooper as a popular writer. He went on to write many more novels, including The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deerslayer (1841). Cooper's novels were often set in the Ame