Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0760793085, Hardcover)

Synopsis The novels of James Fenimore Cooper are steeped in the history and lore of an America that had only recently established its independence and was still in the process of taming its vast wilderness. As the nation's first commercially successful professional novelist, Cooper was instrumental in helping to shape America's early cultural identity and giving voice to his country's unique political and social concerns. The five novels collected in this volume The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, The Pathfinder, and The Deerslayer comprise Cooper's Leather-Stocking Tales, and feature the adventures of woodsman Natty Bumppo, a figure of independence and self-reliance who is recognized today as an American folk icon. Written over a twenty-year span and encompassing sixty years of American history, Cooper's tales are monuments of literature that capture the spirit of the fledgling nation and bring the drama of its settling colorfully to life. James Fenimore Cooper: Five Novels is part of Barnes & Noble's Library of Essential Writers. Each title in the series presents the finest works complete and unabridged from one of the greatest writers in literature in magnificent, elegantly designed hardback editions. Every volume also includes an original introduction that provides the reader with enlightening information on the writer's life and works. Biography James Fenimore Cooper is considered by many to be America's first great novelist. His most popular work, The Last of the Mohicans, has remained one of the most widely read novels throughout the world, greatly influencing the way many cultures have viewed both the American Indians and the frontier period of U.S. history.