and had just completed Ivanhoe, when Cooper appeared with his first book. SCOTT, in his romances, drew from a rich store of ancient Scottish history; Cooper had no such historic past to look back upon, but he invented for America the novel of adventure, and put into literature the picturesque life of the forest and the sea.

In the Wilderness.-COOPER was born in Burlington, New Jersey, September 15, 1789. His father, JUDGE COOPER, at the close of the Revolutionary War, came into the possession of large tracts of land on Lake Otsego, near the head-waters of the Susquehanna. There he made his permanent home when the future novelist was but one year old. Cooperstown, as the place was called, was in the primeval forest of New York. Young Cooper grew up on the frontier of the wilderness, and in a village yet new from the settler's axe. Out of this solitude he was sent to Yale College. He proved a dilatory and intractable student. His early associations had created a love for outdoor life and wild scenery that was stronger in him than his affection for books and learning. He was dismissed from college in his third year.

On the Sea. In 1806, Cooper shipped as a common sailor on a merchant vessel. In a year's time he saw much hard service" before the mast." In 1808 he entered the navy. He remained for three years in the service of the Government, when he married and returned to his forest-home.

An

His First Novel was the result of a mere accident. English society novel had come in his way, and he was reading it to his wife, when, being dissatisfied with the book, he laid it down, saying, "I believe I could write a better story myself." The result was the novel entitled Precaution, published in New York in 1820.

The story conceived by such curious chance was perhaps as good as the ordinary society novel. But it is dull to the last degree, and is now fortunately forgotten. There

is, however, an historical interest about Precaution. It is not without significance that Cooper began his literary career by writing a story of English social life. The dependence of America upon England before 1820 had been so complete that nothing was deemed of any value that was not English in its origin or character. To furnish a good imitation of a foreign book was the highest ideal of an American writer. Cooper in his first book was no more original than most of his contemporaries. He not only chose English social life for the subject of his story (a subject about which he knew nothing), but actually pretended that the book was written by an English

man.

"The Spy."-Cooper's literary life illustrates the history of our national literature. As that history rose from servile imitation in the colonial period into a little briskness and pungency during the Revolution, and to originality of style and subject in the present century, so Cooper advanced from the shallow copy of an English novel of manners to the familiar details of our Revolution, and thence to the free expression in literature of the life of sea and forest. Precaution had not been entirely a failure. Cooper's friends urged him to try again, and to take a subject with which he was more familiar. He took an episode from the Revolution. The scene was in Westchester, which had been during the war neutral ground between the English and American forces. The book was The Spy (1821). It contained the humble but noble and patriotic character of Harvey Birch, one of the author's best creations. The success of The Spy was remarkable. English critics received it kindly, and on its appearance in France it excited enthusiasm which continues unabated after more than sixty years.

The Leather-Stocking Tales.-The success of The Spy clearly showed Cooper what his career was to be. He was conscious that he possessed the power of delighting

readers with the witchery of literary skill. In selecting a subject for a third novel he chose the picturesque scenes and homely incidents of the frontier life with which in childhood he had been so familiar. The book was The Pioneers, and appeared in 1823. In it he dwelt fondly upon all the old events and common scenes of a backwoodsman's life. Its success was immediate. In it appeared for the first time the immortal figure of Natty Bumppo (Leather-Stocking). Without doubt LeatherStocking is the one great original character with which America has enriched the world's literature. Cooper presented this imposing character, who is a magnificent realization of the early pioneers, in four other books, comprising the Leather-Stocking Tales. His life stands in them complete, from the first war-path to his old age and death. The order in which the tales were written is not the logical order, or that in which they should be read. The best arrangement, or that by which the story of the hero's life may be continuously followed, is The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, and The Prairie. [It may be noted that this is also the alphabetical order.] The greatest of these, and the crowning works of Cooper's genius, are The Deerslayer and The Pathfinder.

Among Cooper's other tales of the wilderness are to be noted The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish, Wyandotte, and the Redskins. In his delineation of Indian life Cooper is without a peer. He has fixed for ever in literature the character of a vanishing race. Throughout the whole civilized world the conception of the Indian character as Cooper drew it in The Last of the Mohicans, and further elaborated it in the later Leather-Stocking Tales, has taken a permanent hold on the imaginations of men" (Lounsbury).

The Sea-Stories.-Sir Walter Scott had published The Pirate in 1821. Cooper, with his experience as a sailor, saw at once that the author was a landsman. At a dinner in New York he argued to that effect against the

opinion of the company. He contended that even where the author's facts were right he would have made a better and more effective use of them if he had had personal knowledge of life on the ocean. The outcome of the argument was a book entitled The Pilot. In this book Cooper created the sea-story. Into it and its successors Cooper put with great success his knowledge of naval manœuvres and of the handling of ships. CAPTAIN MARRYAT, CLARK RUSSELL, and all the host of novelists who have composed sea-stories are debtors to Cooper. The time of The Pilot is the American Revolution. The pilot himself is JOHN PAUL JONES. The finest character of the book, and one of Cooper's best, is Long Tom Coffin of Nantucket.

The Red Rover is in many respects the best of Cooper's sea-tales. Others, published at various dates, are-The Water-Witch, Wing and Wing (story of a French privateer in the Mediterranean), The Two Admirals, Jack Tier, The Crater, The Sea-Lions (hunting for seals in southern seas, winter in the Antarctic Ocean), and Afloat and Ashore, with its sequel, Miles Wallingford. The last two are partly autobiographic.

Other Novels.-Satanstoe, a capital book, is an admirable account of colonial life in New York. The Chainbearer is a sequel to it. Homeward Bound and its sequel, Home as Found, are books of very unequal merit: the first is a good sea-story, the other an unreasonable criticism of American manners. Lionel Lincoln contains a faithful and excellent description of the battle of Bunker Hill. Mercedes of Castile narrates the first voyage of Columbus. The remainder of Cooper's novels, too poor to deserve comment or to merit reading, are The Heidenmauer, The Headsman, Oak Openings, The Monikins, and Ways of the Hour.

Death of Cooper.-On September 14, 1851, Cooper died at Cooperstown. A marble statue of Leather-Stocking, with dog and gun, overlooks his grave, and near by, on Lake Otsego, plies the little steamer "Natty Bumppo."

Cooper, like Irving, rests amid the scenes he has made classic.

Cooper's Subjects.-As CHARLES BROCK DEN BROWN followed WILLIAM GODWIN, SO COOPER was a follower of SIR WALTER SCOTT. He was frequently called by his contemporaries the "American Scott." But this must not be understood to mean that Cooper was a conscious imitator of the great English novelist. Both composed romances; both were authors of the "novel of adventure;" both achieved popularity. They were alike in the rapidity with which they added book to book, but they were very unlike in the literary value of their products. Cooper was one of the most unequal of writers. Some of his works are so tedious and so barren of all literary charm as to be quite unreadable. Of his thirty-two novels, ten are of this character.

In the mind of WASHINGTON IRVING we discovered three chief interests-first, the Dutch traditions of New York; second, the historic and literary associations of England; third, the romance of Spain. These three subjects became the centres for three groups of books. The differences of subject in the works of Irving and of Cooper correspond to the different characters of the two men. Irving was gentle, scholarly, refined; Cooper elemental, forceful, passionate, loving the vast ocean and the endless forest. The serene days of Irving contrast strongly with the stormy, quarrelsome life of Cooper.

After eliminating the ten worthless books from Cooper's collection, it will be found that ten of the remaining twenty-two novels are sea-stories, and eight are tales of the wilderness. Two have the Revolution for their subjectThe Spy and Lionel Lincoln-—and two are devoted to old colonial life in New York-Satanstoe and The Chainbearer.

Cooper's Style.-Cooper wrote too much to write everything well. He composed in great haste, and many