What is James Fenimore Cooper?
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] --> | name = James Fenimore Cooper | image = James Fenimore Cooper by Jarvis.jpg | caption = Portrait by John Wesley Jarvis | birth_date = {{Birth date|1789|9|15|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Burlington]], [[New Jersey]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1851|9|14|1789|9|15|mf=y}} | death_place = [[Cooperstown, New York]] | occupation = Writer | movement = Colonial Realism | genre = Historical fiction | notableworks = ''[[The Last of the Mohicans]]'' | influences = | influenced = }} '''James Fenimore Cooper''' (September 15, 1789 - September 14, 1851) was an [[Americans|American]] [[writer]]. He created the character of Natty Bumpo, the archetypal American frontiersman. ==Early life== Cooper was born on September 15, [[1789]] in [[Burlington, New Jersey]]. His father was a [[United States]] [[Congressman]]. James Fenimore was one year old when his family moved to [[Cooperstown, New York]]. The [[community]] was started by his father. Cooper was 13 when he began attending [[Yale University]]. He was kicked out for playing pranks. He blew up another [[student]]'s [[door]]. He also [[teach|taught]] a [[donkey]] to sit in a [[professor]]'s [[chair]]. ==Naval career and marriage== Cooper got a [[job]] as a [[seaman]] on a [[merchant]] [[ship]]. He joined the [[United States Navy]] at age 18. He became a [[midshipman]], but left the Navy in 1811. Cooper married Susan DeLancey when he was 21. They had seven children. Five lived to be [[adult]]s. The first-born survivor, Susan Fenimore Cooper, became a writer and [[naturalist]]. ==Writing career== ''Precaution'' was Cooper's first book. It was [[publish]]ed [[anonymity|anonymously]] in 1820. In 1823, he published ''[[The Pioneers]]''. This book was the first of the Leatherstocking [[novel]]s. These stories became [[famous]] for the [[fiction]]al [[Fictional character|character]] of an American [[woodsman]] called Natty Bumppo. Cooper's most famous [[novel]] ''