First steps

Hello again, I've returned eventually to tell you that since now I'm doing my researching and creative work on a personal site dedicated to Fenimore Cooper.
It can be found here - http://fenimore.web-box.ru/index.html
The site is developing and it's not the final version. I'm waiting for your comments and constructive criticism, you are welcome!
Thank you for your attention.

Leatherstocking Tales on-line

Greetings, dear Visitor!

I'd like to tell you, that since this very moment the links to ALL the Leatherstocking Tales are available on my blog - so, read and enjoy the fascinating world of Cooper's America!

Have a good time!

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences

by Mark Twain

The Pathfinder and The Deerslayer stand at the head of Cooper's novels as artistic creations. There are others of his works which contain parts as perfect as are to be found in these, and scenes even more thrilling. Not one can be compared with either of them as a finished whole.

The defects in both of these tales are comparatively slight. They were pure works of art. (Prof. Lounsbury)
The craft of the woodsman, the tricks of the trapper, all the delicate art of the forest, were familiar to Cooper from his youth up. (Prof. Brander Matthews)
Cooper is the greatest artist in the domain of romantic fiction yet produced by America. (Wilkie Collins)

It seems to me that it was far from right for the Professor of English Literature in Yale, the Professor of English Literature in Columbia, and Wilkie Collies to deliver opinions on Cooper's literature without having read some of it. It would have been much more decorous to keep silent and let persons talk who have read Cooper.
Cooper's art has some defects. In one place in 'Deerslayer,' and in the restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offences against literary art out of a possible 115. It breaks the record.

There are nineteen rules governing literary art in the domain of romanticfiction - some say twenty-two. In Deerslayer Cooper violated eighteen ofthem. These eighteen require:

1. That a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the Deerslayer tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in the air.

2. They require that the episodes of a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. But as the Deerslayer tale is not a tale, and accomplishes nothing and arrives nowhere, the episodes have no rightful place in the work, since there was nothing for them to develop.
3. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except inthe case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked inthe Deerslayer tale.
4. They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. But this detail also has been overlooked in the Deerslayer tale.
5. They require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation,the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject in hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when thepeople cannot think of anything more to say. But this requirement has been ignored from the beginning of the Deerslayer tale to the end of it.
6. They require that when the author describes the character of apersonage in his tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description. But this law gets little or no attentionin the Deerslayer tale, as Natty Bumppo's case will amply prove.
7. They require that when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven-dollar Friendship's Offeringin the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it. But this rule is flung down and danced upon in the Deerslayer tale.
8. They require that crass stupidities shall not be played upon thereader as "the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest, "by either the author or the people in the tale. But this rule ispersistently violated in the Deerslayer tale.
9. They require that the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable. But these rules are not respected in the Deerslayer tale.
10. They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the Deerslayer tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.
11. They require that the characters in a tale shall be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency. But in the Deerslayer tale this rule is vacated.

In addition to these large rules there are some little ones. These require that the author shall:

12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
14. Eschew surplusage.
15. Not omit necessary details.
16. Avoid slovenliness of form.
17. Use good grammar.
18. Employ a simple and straightforward style.

Even these seven are coldly and persistently violated in The Deerslayer tale.

Fenimore Cooper's Short Biography

Born: September 15, 1789, in Burlington, New Jersey, United States

Died: September 14, 1851, in Cooperstown, New York, United States

James Fenimore Cooper is often regarded as the first great writer of American fiction. He wrote stories of international travel and criticisms of the American social systems, but is best known for his action-filled adventure stories of life on the American frontier.

Cooper was the second to last child in a family of twelve children. He grew up in a town founded by his father in central New York state, Cooperstown. His father was Judge William Cooper who had served in the administrations of both George Washington and John Adams. His mother, Elizabeth Fenimore, was from a Quaker family. His early education took place in a private school in Albany. He then spent three years at Yale University where he distinguished himself as a Latin scholar; however, he was expelled from the schools as the result of a prank in his junior year. After leaving university, Cooper joined the merchant marines and then went on to become a midshipman in the United States navy. In 1809, Cooper's father died, leaving him enough money that he was able to live his life with financial independence. He left the navy in 1811 to marry Susan Augusta DeLancey, a descendant of one of the early governors of the American colony. Cooper managed his wife's estates in Winchester County New York for several years and didn't begin writing until the age of thirty. Initially, he attempted writing to provide himself with a challenge since his financial security was ensured by his inheritance and the revenue from the estates. His first book, Precaution, was written in the style of Jane Austen and, while not a success, it is interesting for its historical content. Despite this setback, he began writing stories based on his own experiences as a woodsman and a sailor. His second book in 1821, The Spy, was based on the style and structure of Sir Walter Scott's adventure novels. But The Spy was more than just an imitation. It introduced new themes of conflicting loyalties within the setting of the American Civil War. The book was instrumental in launching his career in both North America and Europe. Cooper's family responsibilities had been growing steadily over the years as he had taken in the widows and children of his older brothers. While he was not in financial difficulty, the revenue generated by his writing was a welcome supplement to the earnings from the estates. The success of The Spy gave Cooper the confidence to establish his own style of writing and abandon imitation of established writers. Through his writing, he attempted to establish a form of literature that was unique to the American culture of the time. In 1823, Cooper published Pioneers, the first in a series of five books called the Leatherstocking Tales. Much of the material for this book was derived from his experiences growing up in Cooperstown. The story details adventures in a frontier town and introduces Natty Bumppo, a character who reappears throughout the series. For four years, starting in 1822, Cooper lived in New York where he became increasingly active in the literary community. He was a founding member of the Bread and Cheese Club which was an association of active American writers. One of the more notable members was poet and journalist, William Cullen Bryant who is best known for his poem Thanatopsis. In 1826, Cooper was awarded the position of U.S. Consul at Lyons, France. While there, he produced a three-part series that detailed the feudalism of medieval Europe. After almost seven years in Europe, he returned to America and published Gleanings in Europe, a series of writings about his travels and experiences in Europe published in 1838. He was becoming more active politically at this time and published articles criticizing the social and political structure of America. His essay, The American Democrat, raised considerable controversy and he was also involved in considerable mudslinging which eventually ended in lawsuits of libel and slander. Despite his activism in the political arena, Cooper completed The Deerslayer in 1840 and The Pathfinder in 1841. The completion of these two books ended the series of the Leatherstocking Tales. While many writers, including Joseph Conrad and Herman Melville, admired Cooper's work, Mark Twain was vocal in his criticism of Leatherstocking Tales. He claimed Cooper's characterizations and dialogue were inept and his knowledge of wilderness survival questionable. Cooper spent his final years in Cooperstown where he continued to publish works of fiction and nonfiction including some naval history and The Littlepage Manuscripts which detailed the lives of several generations of a New York family. Cooper died on September 14, 1851, one day before his sixty-second birthday.

(c) from http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/quickstep/1103/cooper_james.htm