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Cooper, James Fenimore

author, was born Sept. 15, 1789, in Burlington, N.

J. He was the first American writer to gain general Eurorecognition, pean and the first native novelist who won a national reputation.

Although much that he wrote is nearly forgotten, the best of his work survives and is still popular.

His first novel, Precaution, conventional, mediocre piece of writing, apa peared in 1820, and was followed, in 1821, by The Spy, the most famous of all his books, having been translated into all the principal languages of Europe. Almost as famous is The Last of the Mohicans, a much greater work. Among his tales of the sea, The Pilot, and The Red Rover are the best, as the five Leather Stocking Tales-the Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, The Prairie-are the best of his stories of Indian life. His other fictions include The Bravo; Lionel Lincoln, or The Leaguer of Boston; The Water- Witch; The Two Admirals; The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish; The Heidenmauer; The Headsman; Homeward Bound; Home as Found; The Monikins, the weakest of all his works; Mercedes of Castile; Wingand-Wing; Wyandotte; Afloat and Ashore; Satanstoe; The Chainbearer; The Red Skins; Jack Tier; The Crater; The Oak Openings; The Sea Lions; The Ways of the Hour; and Miles Wallingford. He wrote, also, History of the United States Navy; Sketches of Switzerland; Gleanings in Europe, and Notions of the Americans. He died Sept. 14, 1851, in Cooperstown, N. Y.