James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 - September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the nineteenth century, best known for his historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries. He spent much of his childhood and the last fifteen years of his life at Cooperstown, New York, which was founded on land owned by his father, William Cooper. Cooper joined the Episcopal Church soon before his death and gave liberally to it. He spent three years at Yale University, where he was a member of the Linonian Society. Cooper enlisted in the United States Navy as a midshipman after a period on a commercial voyage, where he studied the mechanics of handling sailing vessels, which heavily affected many of his novels and other writings. The Spy, a story about espionage set during the American Revolutionary War and published in 1821, established his career. He also wrote American marine tales. His best-known works are the Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five historical frontier novels written between 1823 and 1841 that established the famous American frontier scout, Natty Bumppo.
