詹姆斯·菲尼莫尔·库珀

詹姆斯·菲尼莫尔·库柏（英语：James Fenimore Cooper，1789年9月15日—1851年9月14日）是十九世纪最早赢得国际声誉的美国作家之一。也是浪漫主义的代表作家。他的主要作品是以猎人拿铁·本波(Natty Bumppo)为主角的《皮袜子故事集》(Leather Stocking Tales)，描述美国十八世纪的边疆拓荒时代，纵横美洲大草原的猎人和拓荒者的故事。主角是猎人拿铁本波(Natty Bumppo)集文明开化与蛮荒独立的气质于一身，是边疆拓荒时代独立精神的代表，全系列共有五册，故事并未依时序出版，分别是《猎鹿人》(Deerslayer)、《最后的摩根战士》(The Last of the Mohicans)、《拓荒人》(Pioneers)、《找路人》(The Pathfinder)、《大草原》(The Prairies)。另外还有《领海人》(The pilot : A Sea story)、《间谍》(The Spy)等以海上军事活动为背景的冒险小说。

生平

詹姆斯·菲尼莫尔·库柏出生于美国新泽西州柏灵顿市，后成长于纽约中部，因为父母亲是个大地主，所以成长在优渥的环境中。大学时间先现在耶鲁大学待几年，后来却离开学校开始航海生涯，并在1808年成为美国海军预官。1811年，他离开海军并结了婚，航海生涯因此而告中断。库柏本身也喜爱创作，一直到六十岁还在写作。于1851年逝世于纽约的库柏城，享年六十三岁。

詹姆斯·菲尼莫尔·库柏是林肯社群的成员。

作品

《拓荒人》（The Pioneers） 1823

《最后的摩根战士》1823

《大草原》（The Prairie） 1827

《找路人》（The Pathfinder） 1840

《猎鹿人》（The Deerslayer） 1841

《领海人》(The Pilot : A Sea Story)

《间谍》(The Spy)

James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought him fame and fortune. He lived much of his boyhood and his last 15 years in Cooperstown, New York, which was founded by his father William Cooper on property that he owned. Cooper became a member of the Episcopal Church shortly before his death, and contributed generously to it. He attended Yale University for three years, where he was a member of the Linonian Society.

After a stint on a commercial voyage, Cooper served in the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, where he learned the technology of managing sailing vessels, which greatly influenced many of his novels and other writings. The novel that launched his career was The Spy, a tale about espionage set during the American Revolutionary War and published in 1821. He also created American sea stories. His best-known works are five historical novels of the frontier period, written between 1823 and 1841, known as the Leatherstocking Tales, which introduced the iconic American frontier scout, Natty Bumppo. Cooper's works on the U.S. Navy have been well received among naval historians, but they were sometimes criticized by his contemporaries. Among his more famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of the Mohicans, often regarded as his masterpiece. Throughout his career, he published numerous social, political, and historical works of fiction and nonfiction, with the objective of countering European prejudices and nurturing an original American art and culture.

Early life and education

Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1789 to William Cooper and Elizabeth (Fenimore) Cooper, the 11th of 12 children, half of whom died during infancy or childhood.

Shortly after James' first birthday, his family moved to Cooperstown, New York, a community founded by his father on a large piece of land that he had bought for development. Later, his father was elected to the United States Congress as a representative from Otsego County. Their town was in a central area of New York along the headwaters of the Susquehanna River that had previously been patented to Colonel George Croghan by the Province of New York in 1769. Croghan mortgaged the land before the revolution, and after the war, part of the tract was sold at public auction to William Cooper and his business partner Andrew Craig. By 1788, William Cooper had selected and surveyed the site where Cooperstown would be established. He erected a home on the shore of Otsego Lake and moved his family there in the autumn of 1790. Several years later, he began construction of the mansion that became known as Otsego Hall, completed in 1799 when James was 10.

Cooper was enrolled at Yale University at age 13, but he incited a dangerous prank, which involved blowing up another student's door—after having already locked a donkey in a recitation room. He was expelled in his third year without completing his degree, so he obtained work in 1806 as a sailor and joined the crew of a merchant vessel at age 17. By 1811, he obtained the rank of midshipman in the fledgling United States Navy, conferred upon him by an officer's warrant signed by Thomas Jefferson.