James Fenimore Cooper詹姆斯·费尼莫尔·库珀 (1789-1851) 是美国文学的先驱者和奠基人之一,是第一个蜚声世界的美国作家。生于新泽西州伯灵顿城，其父是国会议员兼法官。少年时代在纽约州奥茨高湖畔的库珀镇度过。1803年进入耶鲁大学学习。因违犯校规被开除。1806年起在一艘商船上当水手。1808年起在美国海军服役三年。30岁时开始从事文学创作。1826～1833年去欧洲考察，曾担任过美国驻法国里昂的领事。代表作系列长篇小说《皮护腿故事集》，(包括《开拓者》、《最后一个莫希干人》、《草原》、《探路者》、《杀鹿者》)赞扬印第安人的正直，揭露殖民主义者的贪婪残暴，情节惊险曲折。其他作品有《间谍》、《舵手》、《领港员》、《火山口》等。
James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was a prolific and popularAmerican writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrotenumerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuringfrontiersman Natty Bumppo. Among his most famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of theMohicans, often regarded as his masterpiece.
Primary Works
Fiction: Precaution,1820; The Spy,1821; The Pioneers, 1823; The Pilot, 1824; Lionel Lincoln,1824;The Last of the Mohicans, 1826; The Red Rover,1827; The Prairie, 1827; The Red Rover,1827;The Red Rover, 1828; The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish,1829; The Water Witch,1830; TheBravo,1831; The Heidenmauer,1832; The Headsman,1833; The Monikins,1835; HomewardBound,1838; Home as Found,1838; Mercedes of Castile,1840; The Pathfinder, 1840; TheDeerslayer, 1841; The Two Admirals,1842; The Wing-and-Wing,1842; Le Mouchoir; anAutobiographical Romance,1843; Ned Myers, 1843; Wyandotte, 1843; Afloat and Ashore,1844;Miles Wallingford: A Sequel to Afloat and Ashore,1844; Satanstoe,1845; The Chain Bearer,1845;The Redskins,1846; The Crater,1847; Jack Tier,1848; Oak Openings, 1849; The SeaLions,1849;The Ways of the Hour,1850.
The Spy: A Tale of the Neutral Ground. Elliott, James P. (ed. and introd.); Pickering, James H.;Schachterle, Lance, and others. NY: AM, 2002.
Non-Fiction: Notions of the Americans: Picked Up by a Travelling Bachelor, 1828; Sketches ofSwitzerland,1836; Gleanings in Europe,1837; The American Democrat,1838; The History of theNavy of the United States of America,1839.
Major Themes in Cooper's Writing
1. The American Society.
2. The American History.
3. The Backwoods - Frontier.
4. The Sea.
Contributions of Cooper
The creation of the famous Leatherstocking saga has cemented his position as our first greatnational novelist and his influence pervades American literature. In his thirty-two years (1820-1851)of authorship, Cooper produced twenty-nine other long works of fiction and fifteen books -enough to fill forty-eight volumes in the new definitive edition of his Works. Among hisachievements:
1. The first successful American historical romance in the vein of Sir Walter Scott (The Spy, 1821).
2. The first sea novel (The Pilot, 1824).
3. The first attempt at a fully researched historical novel (Lionel Lincoln, 1825).
4. The first full-scale History of the Navy of the United States of America (1839).
5. The first American international novel of manners (Homeward Bound and Home as Found, 1838).
6. The first trilogy in American fiction (Satanstoe, 1845; The Chainbearer, 1845; and The Redskins, 1846).
7. The first and only five-volume epic romance to carry its mythic hero - Natty Bumppo - fromyouth to old age.
Writings
He anonymously published his first book, Precaution (1820). He soon issued several others. In1823, he published The Pioneers; this was the first of the Leatherstocking series, featuring NattyBumppo, the resourceful American woodsman at home with the Delaware Indians and especiallytheir chief Chingachgook. Cooper's most famous novel, Last of the Mohicans (1826), became oneof the most widely read American novels of the nineteenth century. The book was written in NewYork City, where Cooper and his family lived from 1822 to 1826.
In 1826 Cooper moved his family to Europe, where he sought to gain more income from his booksas well as provide better education for his children. While overseas he continued to write. His bookspublished in Paris include The Red Rover, and The Water Witch—two of his many sea stories.
In 1832 he entered the lists as a party writer; in a series of letters to the National, a Parisian journal,he defended the United States against a string of charges brought against them by the RevueBritannique. For the rest of his life he continued skirmishing in print, sometimes for the nationalinterest, sometimes for that of the individual, and not infrequently for both at once.
Otsego Hall, Cooper's ancestral homeThis opportunity to make a political confession of faithreflected the political turn he already had taken in his fiction, having attacked European anti-republicanism in The Bravo (1831). Cooper continued this political course in The Heidenmauer(1832) and The Headsman: or the Abbaye of Vigneron (1833). The Bravo depicted Venice as aplace where a ruthless oligarchy lurks behind the mask of the "serene republic." All were widely readon both sides of the Atlantic, though The Bravo was a critical failure in the United States.
In 1833 Cooper returned to America and immediately published A Letter to My Countrymen, inwhich he gave his own version of the controversy in which he had been engaged and sharplycensured his compatriots for their share in it. This attack he followed up with novels and severalsets of notes on his travels and experiences in Europe. His Homeward Bound and Home as Foundare notable for containing a highly idealized portrait of himself.
In June 1834, he resolved to reopen his ancestral mansion, Otsego Hall, at Cooperstown, thenlong closed and falling into decay; he had been absent from the mansion nearly 16 years. Repairswere at once begun, and the house was speedily put in order. At first, he wintered in New York Cityand summered in Cooperstown, but eventually he made Otsego Hall his permanent abode.
