The Pioneers: A Library of America Paperback Classic [Paperback]

The first of Cooper'sLeatherstocking Tales,The Pioneersintroduces the character of Natty Bumppo, one of literature's most unforgettable heroes, an outsider on the advancing edge of a civilization he can neither abide nor escape. Bumppo makes his first appearance here as an aged hunter living on the fringe of settlement near Templeton (Cooperstown), New York, at the end of the eighteenth century.?An introduction by historian Alan Taylor (William Cooper's Town) explores the real historical backdrop against which Cooper's imagination flourished.James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851) grew up at Otsego Hall, his father’s manorial estate near Lake Otsego in upstate New York. Educated at Yale, he spent five years at sea, as a foremast hand and then as a midshipman in the navy. At thirty he was suddenly plunged into a literary career when his wife challenged his claim that he could write a better book that the English novel he was reading to her. The result wasPrecaution(1820), a novel of manners. His second book,The Spy(1821), was an immediate success, and withThe Pioneers(1823) he began his series of Leatherstocking Tales. By 1826 whenThe Last of the Mohicansappeared, his standing as a major novelist was clearly established. From 1826 to 1833 Cooper and his family lived and traveled in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. Two of his most successful works,The PrairieandThe Red Rover, were published in 1827. He returned to Otsego Hall in 1834, and after a series of relatively unsuccessful books of essays, travel sketches, and history, he returned to fiction – and to Leatherstocking – withThe Pathfinder(1840) andThe Deerslayer(1841). In his last decade he faced declining popularity brought on in part by his waspish attacks on critics and political opponents. Just before his death in 1851 an edition of his works led to a reappraisal of his fiction and somewhat l³%