Cooper, James Fenimore. An illustrious American novelist. Born in Burlington, NJ, 1789. After six years' experience in naval life, Cooper retired from the sea in 1810, and took up his residence at Cooperstown, Otsego County, NY. About 1819 appeared his first work, "Precaution." In quick succession followed "The Spy," a tale which at once secured for him a place in the first rank of novelists; his almost unequaled sea stories ("The Red Rover," "Pilot," and "Waterwitch"), his famous "Leather Stocking Series" of Indian life and adventure (the "Pioneers," "Last of the Mohicans," "Pathfinder," "Deerslayer," and "Prairie"). Cooper, after passing some years in Europe, died in 1851. His works have been translated into every European language, and have exhausted numberless editions.

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