Back to Blog ListJ.F. Cooper
March 30, 2009 | Permalink
...What I wanted to ask was why you think Fenimore Cooper's works have not made a similar comeback. I am currently reading his book "The Sea Lions", a story of a man's adventure in Antarctica hunting seals. Everyone is familiar with the Leatherstocking Tales, but I had not even realized he wrote more until finding a couple dozen of his works in a used bookstore last January. Have you heard of his other books? Thank you for such a good website! I discovered it from the link on Visionary Daughters. Sincerely, H.G.
Hannah, First of all, you should know that J.F. Cooper is in my "top 5 authors" category. He was the first real American historical fiction author, and despite his faults, he is an amazing author.
I have read about 13 or so of his books (including the Leatherstockings Tales 5 book set.) I actually own a 30 volume set of his books, circa 1880. This was a great find that I got on eBay about a year or two ago.
Even though Cooper does not have quite the same worldview that Henty or Ballantyne did, he was still living in a time when Christian ideas were widely shared. So I think he still qualifies as a generally healthy read.
About half way down this article, I have some comments on how I got my Cooper collection. Cooper really is one of the greats in book history! I have not read The Sea Lions yet, but it is definitely on my "Cooper-to-read" list.
VoD, Joshua