JAMES
FENIMORE COOPER
by
MARY E. PHILLIPS
New York: John Lane Company
London: John Lane: The Bodley Head
Toronto: Bell and Cockburn
MCMXIII
Copyright, 1912
By Mary E. Phillips
The University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A.
Dedicated To The Young Of
All Ages From The Years Of Ten
To Ten Times Ten
CONTENTS
PREFACE
The intention of this simply told personal life of James FenimoreCooper, the creator of American romance, is to have all materialauthentic. The pictures of men, women, places and things are, asnearly as possible, of Cooper's association with them to reproduce abackground of his time and to make the man—not the author—itscentral foreground figure. From every available source since theearliest mention of the author's name, both in print and out, materialfor these pages has been collected. In this wide gleaning in the fieldof letters—a rich harvest from able and brilliant pens—the gleanerhereby expresses grateful appreciation of these transplanted values.Much, precious in worth and attractive in interest, comes into thesepages from the generous and good among the relatives, friends, andadmirers of Fenimore Cooper. And more than all others, the author'sgrand-nephew, the late Mr. George Pomeroy Keese, of Cooperstown, NewYork, has paid rich and rare tribute to the memory of his uncle, withwhom when a boy he came in living touch. Appeals to Cooper's grandson,James Fenimore Cooper, Esq., of Albany, New York, and also to hispublishers have been met in a spirit so gracious and their giving hasbeen so generous as to command the grateful service of the writer.
For rare values, in service and material, special credits are due to Mr.George Pomeroy Keese, Cooperstown, N.Y.; James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.,Albany, N.Y.; Mr. Francis Whiting Halsey, New York City; Mr. EdwinTenney Stiger, Watertown, Mass.; General James Grant Wilson, New YorkCity; Mr. Horace G. Wadlin, Librarian, Messrs. Otto Fleischner,Assistant Librarian, O.A. Bierstadt, F.C. Blaisdell, and others, of theBoston Public Library; Miss Alice Bailey Keese, Cooperstown, N.Y.; Mrs.T. Henry Dewey, Paris, France; Mrs. Edward Emerson Waters, New YorkCity; and Miss Mary C. Sheridan, Boston, Mass.
Mary E. Phillips.
INTRODUCTION
A life of Cooper, written with some particular reference to thepicturesque village among the Otsego hills, where he so long lived andin whose soil he, for some sixty years or more, has slept, has long beenneeded. That such a book