Select Works of James Fenimore Cooper (6 vols.)

by James Fenimore Cooper

Publishers:

Stringer and Townsend; Charles Scribner’s Sons; Hurd and Houghton

and

2 more

, 1852–1919

Overview

James Fenimore Cooper is one of the most prominent American novelists of the nineteenth century. His works are popular throughout the world, and have had a tremendous literary influence. Best known for his masterpiece, The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper’s writing breathed life into the stale environment of nineteenth-century literature, illuminating the natural beauty of the world around him. His works provide vivid depictions of life at sea and the Western frontier, and brought to the world the romanticized noble Native American and fearless frontiersman.

The Select Works of James Fenimore Cooper includes six volumes of his most popular works, including the entire Leatherstocking Tales, and his second book, The Spy, which launched the American novel into the literary world. These classic adventures explore humanity, nature, and culture in the Western frontier.

In the Logos editions, these volumes are enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Powerful searches help you find exactly what you’re looking for. Tablet and mobile apps let you take the discussion with you. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.

Key Features

• Six classic historical novels by James Fenimore Cooper
• One of the most popular novels in the world, The Last of the Mohicans
• Tales of adventure, romance, and the Western frontier

Praise for the Print Edition

The extraordinary interest excited by the Leather Stocking Tales in all countries, and in all the modern European languages, and in every rank of society, is an irrefragable evidence of profound genius in the author, and matchless skill in creations which touch human sympathies through their fidelity to nature and intense reality.

—The United States Magazine and Democratic Review

[Cooper] is a poet; and if his creations should not be immortal, it will be the work of the perverse and incalculable accidents of time; for multitudes, less worthy, have a niche in the temple of memory.

—The New-York Review, and Atheneum Magazine

Product Details

• Title: Select Works of James Fenimore Cooper
• Author: James Fenimore Cooper
• Volumes: 6
• Pages: 2,982

The Deerslayer

• Author: James Fenimore Cooper
• Publisher: Stringer and Townsend
• Publication Date: 1852
• Pages: 549

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The Deerslayer, or The First Warpath, is a prequel to Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales. The story follows Natty Bumppo, nicknamed “Deerslayer,” a frontiersman who morally opposes the mistreatment of Native Americans, particularly scalping. Bumppo’s fellow frontiersmen don’t share his philosophies, and when their violent nature lands them in trouble, it’s up to Bumppo to save them.

The pictures which our author has here drawn of nature, we contend are second to none of those vivid limnings by which he has won his reputation. The wide, solemn forest, varied by the season’s changes; the lake embosomed in its recesses; and the groupings of objects in this great framework, are admirable examples of Mr. Cooper’s close observation and fine powers of description.

—New York Monthly Magazine

The Last of the Mohicans

• Author: James Fenimore Cooper
• Publisher: Charles Scribner’s Sons
• Publication Date: 1919
• Pages: 370

The Last of the Mohicans is one of the most widely read novels in the world. It is Cooper’s most popular work, and it provided the world with romanticized notions of the fearless frontiersmen and the noble Native American.

. . . in Europe the book produced quite a startling effect.

—Susan Cooper

The Pathfinder

• Author: James Fenimore Cooper
• Publisher: Hurd and Houghton
• Publication Date: 1852
• Pages: 508

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The Pathfinder, or, The Inland Sea, is the third novel chronologically in the Leatherstocking Tales. The story takes place around Lake Ontario, where Cooper served for a time as midshipman. It is the only novel in the series to feature a romance involving Natty Bumppo.

After an attentive and gratifying perusal of this work, we unhesitatingly declare it to be fully equal to any of Mr. Cooper’s former productions, and superior to all other novels that we have lately had occasion to notice.

—William E. Burton and Edgar Allan Poe, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and American Monthly Review

The Pioneers

• Author: James Fenimore Cooper
• Publisher: Hurd and Houghton
• Publication Date: 1870
• Pages: 609

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The Pioneers was the first published book in the Leatherstocking Tales, though it takes place later chronologically. The story follows the elderly frontiersman Natty Bumppo, Judge Marmaduke Temple, and Elizabeth Temple, and explores the relationship between humanity and nature.

The Prairie

• Author: James Fenimore Cooper
• Publisher: John W. Lovell Company
• Publication Date: 1885
• Pages: 483

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The Prairie takes place in the final days of the heroic frontiersman, Natty Bumppo. Though Bumppo is never mentioned by name, he is referred to as “the trapper” and “the old man,” and he helps the main characters as they journey through the wilderness.

[Cooper’s works] are the effusions of a man accustomed to study the mightiest forms of nature—not for the sake of any associations which the force of imagination has connected with them, nor for the gratification of impregnating them with sentiment and though, but for the sake of their own sensible grandeur.

—The New Monthly Magazine

The Spy

• Author: James Fenimore Cooper
• Publisher: D. Appleton and Company
• Publication Date: 1875
• Pages: 463

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The Spy was the second novel James Fenimore Cooper wrote. The story takes place where Cooper lived in New York, during the American Revolutionary War, particularly in the neutral ground between American and British armies. The novel was the first from the United States to earn a wide readership and achieve lasting fame.

About James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) was one of the most popular nineteenth-century novelists, best remembered for his masterpiece, The Last of the Mohicans. Cooper held a lucrative writing career, producing sea stories based on his own time at sea, as well as a popular series of historical novels called the Leatherstocking Tales. He was educated at Yale for three years, but was later expelled for poor behavior. Cooper’s works often reflected his political stance, for which the Whig party press maliciously criticized him. Cooper filed defamation lawsuits against them, and he won every case. His works were admired by Victor Hugo, Honore de Balzac, Henry David Thoreau, and a number of other significant writers throughout the world.