James Fenimore Cooper. Collected Works. New York. 1854. 33 vols. These have appeared in many later collected and individual editions in America, England, and many other lands and languages. The chief works appeared originally as follows: Precaution, 1820; The Spy, 1821; The Pioneers, 1823; The Pilot, 1823; Lionel Lincoln, 1825; The Last of the Mohicans, 1826; The Prairie, 1827; The Red Rover, 1828; Notions of the Americans, 1828; The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, 1829; The Water-Witch, 1831; The Bravo, 1831; The Heidenmauer, 1832; The Headsman, 1833; The Monikins, 1835; Homeward Bound, 1838; Home as Found, 1838; The Pathfinder, 1840; Mercedes of Castile, 1840; The Deerslayer, 1841; The Two Admirals, 1842; Wing and Wing, 1842; Wyandotte, 1843; Ned Myers, 1843; Afloat and Ashore, 1844; Satanstoe, 1845; The Chain Bearer, 1845; The Redskins, 1846; The Crater, 1847; Jack Tier, 1848; The Oak Openings, 1848; The Sea Lions, 1849; The Ways of the Hour, 1850.

Bibliographies

Good bibliographies in Lounsbury’s Life (see below), and Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 532–534.

Biography and Criticism

There is no official biography, Cooper having opposed such a publication. The best single volume is by T. R. Lounsbury (A.M.L. Series).

Brownell, W. C. Cooper. Scribner’s Magazine, April, 1906. Also in American Prose Masters. 1909.

Bryant, W. C. A Discourse on the Life and Genius of James Fenimore Cooper. 1852.

Clemens, S. L. (Mark Twain). Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses. North American Review, July, 1895. Also in How to tell a Story and Other Essays. 1897.

Erskine, John. Leading American Novelists. 1910.

Hillard, G. S. Fenimore Cooper. Atlantic Monthly, January, 1862.

Howe, M. A. DeW. James Fenimore Cooper. The Bookman, March, 1897. Also in American Bookmen. 1898.

Howells, W. D. Heroines of Fiction. 1901.

Matthews, B. Fenimore Cooper. Atlantic Monthly, September, 1907. Also in Gateways to Literature. 1912.

Phillips, Mary E. James Fenimore Cooper. 1913.

Simms, W. C. The Writings of J. Fenimore Cooper. Views and Reviews. 1845. Ser. 1.

Stedman, E. C. Poe, Cooper, and the Hall of Fame. North American Review, August, 1907.

Tuckerman, H. T. James Fenimore Cooper. North American Review, October, 1859.

Van Doren, Carl. Cambridge History of American Literature. Vol. I, Bk. II, in chap. vi.

Vincent, L. H. American Literary Masters. 1906.

Wilson, J. G. Cooper Memorials and Memories. The Independent, January 31, 1901.

TOPICS AND PROBLEMS

Read Brownell’s defense of Cooper’s Indian characters in his “Masters of American Prose” and check his statements by your own observations in a selected novel.

Read the comments of Brownell in “American Prose Masters,” and of Lounsbury in the A. M. L. Series, on Cooper’s women, and then arrive at your own conclusions from the reading of a selected novel.

If you have read two or three of Cooper’s novels, see if he has introduced his usual polished gentleman and his bore or pedant in each, and see how nearly these characters correspond in themselves and in their story value.

Make a study of the actual plot and its development in any selected novel of Cooper’s.

Read Mark Twain’s essay on “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” and decide on how far it is fair and how far it was dictated by Mark Twain’s hostility to romantic fiction.

Read Cooper’s prefaces to a half-dozen or more novels for the light they will throw on his belligerency of temper.

Read “Home as Found” for comparison of the topics treated with those in the “Salmagundi” and “Croaker” papers, for observation on the variety of American weaknesses presented, for a decision as to how fundamental or how superficial these weaknesses were, and for a conclusion as to the amount of evident ill temper in the book.