The Deerslayer - James Fenimore Cooper

About the Book

With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Deerslayer is the culmination of James Fenimore Cooper s Leather-Stocking novels, featuring Natty Bumppo (the deer-slaying young frontiersman) and the Mohican chief, Chingachgook. Cooper portrays the hubris of the conquest of a vast territory. The action takes place during the American wars of the 1740s. Natty and his friend Harry attempt to save a trapper and two young women, whose floating fort on Lake Glimmerglass is besieged by the ruthless Iroquois. The tension steadily increases to the point at which a cruel outcome seems inevitable. The exciting action, the romantic potentialities and the knowledgeable evocation of frontier life (with its moral and racial conflicts) have made this novel a perennial favourite. The courageous Natty, with his problematic values, has set the precedent for countless American heroes. Culturally, The Deerslayer has proved to be a powerfully influential work.

About the Author

James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was an American novelist who, at the height of his fame, was one of the world's most widely read writers, and could claim to be America's first popular novelist. Although no longer enjoying the same reputation of past times, his novels, 'The Last of the Mohicans' and 'The Deerslayer' are fine pieces of work.

James Fenimore Cooper was born on 15th September 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey, the son of Quakers, Judge William Cooper and Elisabeth Fenimore Cooper. The family moved to Cooperstown, New York, which his father had founded. James Fenimore spent his youth on the family estate or on the shores of Otsego Lake.

Cooper attended the village school, and during 1800-02 entered the household of the rector of St. Peter’s. After being expelled from Yale, Cooper joined the Navy and served for a year. In 1808 he served on the Vesuvius and the Wasp in the Atlantic in 1809. He resigned his commission in 1811 and married Susan Augusta De Lancey.

During the 1810s Cooper took up the comfortable life of a gentleman farmer. He lived in Mamaroneck, New York from 1811 to 1814, then in Cooperstown, and from 1817 to 1821 in Scarsdale, New York. A change of fortune connected with his father’s estate ended the Coopers’ rural idyll. He settled in Westchester, living on his wife’s land. He was extremely fond of reading and after his wife challenged him to write a book, he began his literary career.

His first novel, Precaution, which wasn’t very successful, was published in 1820, Then in 1821 he published The Spy. The Spy brought Cooper great fortune and he gave up farming completely. He wrote many other novels including The Deerslayer, The Last of The Mohicans, The Pathfinder and The Prairie. Later in his life he spent his time in Cooperstown and turned from pure fiction to a combination of art and controversy. His later novels include The Crater and Vulcan’s Peak.

Cooper died of dropsy on 14th September 1851, the day before he turned 62. He was interred in Christ Episcopal Churchyard where his father was also buried.