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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2009
In his poem to the hesitating purchaser of Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson names Cooper among the great romancers he has emulated, describing him as “ Cooper of the wood and wave.” That phrase names both the aspect of Cooper's work which interests me, the adventure novels, and the major subdivision of that aspect. I am not, that is, going to discuss the non-fiction, and among the fiction I am not going to discuss the Effingham or the Littlepage novels, nor even the historical novels as such. I'm going to concentrate upon the Leatherstocking saga, seen as forest books, and upon sea fiction like Afloat and Ashore, The Pilot, and The Sea Lions. I want to point out differences between the two sub-genres in fictional art and fictional success, and to try to explain those differences in terms of social and political forces. But I also want to stress the unity of the two, which is to say Cooper's identity as an adventure novelist. Because we lack a critical vocabulary for that genre, critics have, it seems to me, failed to take proper account of one of the major forms and forces of our literature. And this is particularly unfortunate in American Studies, because adventure has been so large a part of American culture.
An earlier version of this paper was read at the American Studies Association Convention, held in Boston, Mass., in October 1977.
1 Lévi-Strauss, Claude, Tristes Tropiques, trans. John, and Weightman, Doreen (New York: Pocket Books, Inc., 1977), p. 367Google Scholar.
2 Anon., “ Tales of Indian Life,” Colburn's New Magazine, 20 (1827), 79–82Google Scholar. Reprinted in George Dekker and John P. McWilliams, eds., Fenimore Cooper: the Critical Heritage (London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975); see p. 121.
3 Parkman, Francis, “The Works of James Fenimore Cooper,” North American Review, 74 (01 1852), 147–61Google Scholar. Reprinted in Dekker and McWilliams; see p. 250.
4 Ibid. pp. 250, 251–52.
5 Poe, Edgar Allen, Graham's Magazine, 24 (11 1843), 261–64Google Scholar. Reprinted in Dekker and McWilliams; see p. 208.
6 “ F.A.S.,” “ The United States: American Literature, Novels of Mr. Cooper,” Le Globe, 5. No. 33 (19 06 1827), 173–75Google Scholar, and No. 39 (2 July 1827), 205–7. Reprinted in Dekker and McWilliams; see pp. 126 and 127.
7 Cooper, J. F., Notions of the Americans (New York, 1828), 2, 83–84Google Scholar. Quoted in Philbrick, Thomas, James Fenimore Cooper and the Development of American Sea Fiction (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961), p. 49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8 Quoted in Philbrick, pp. 1–2.
