“I believe I could write a better story myself!” With these words,since become famous, James Fenimore Cooper laid aside the English novel whichhe was reading aloud to his wife. A few days later he submitted several pagesof manuscript for her approval, and then settled down to the task of makinggood his boast. In November, 1820, he gave the public a novel in two volumes,entitled Precaution. But it was published anonymously, and d