Mary E. Phillips

[Illustration:  Leatherstocking.]

New York:  John Lane Company
London:  John Lane:  The Bodley Head
Toronto:  Bell and Cockburn
MCMXIII

Copyright, 1912

By Mary E. Phillips

The University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A.

Dedicated To The Young Of
All Ages From The Years Of Ten
To Ten Times Ten

PREFACE

The intention of this simply told personal life of James Fenimore Cooper, the creator of American romance, is to have all material authentic.  The pictures of men, women, places and things are, as nearly as possible, of Cooper’s association with them to reproduce a background of his time and to make the man—­not the author—­its central foreground figure.  From every available source since the earliest mention of the author’s name, both in print and out, material for these pages has been collected.  In this wide gleaning in the field of letters—­a rich harvest from able and brilliant pens—­the gleaner hereby expresses grateful appreciation of these transplanted values.  Much, precious in worth and attractive in interest, comes into these pages from the generous and good among the relatives, friends, and admirers of Fenimore Cooper.  And more than all others, the author’s grand-nephew, the late Mr. George Pomeroy Keese, of Cooperstown, New York, has paid rich and rare tribute to the memory of his uncle, with whom when a boy he came in living touch.  Appeals to Cooper’s grandson, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq., of Albany, New York, and also to his publishers have been met in a spirit so gracious and their giving has been so generous as to command the grateful service of the writer.

For rare values, in service and material, special credits are due to Mr.
George Pomeroy Keese, Cooperstown, N.Y.; James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.,
Albany, N.Y.; Mr. Francis Whiting Halsey, New York City; Mr. Edwin
Tenney Stiger, Watertown, Mass.; General James Grant Wilson, New York
City; Mr. Horace G. Wadlin, Librarian, Messrs. Otto Fleischner,
Assistant Librarian, O.A.  Bierstadt, F.C.  Blaisdell, and others, of the
Boston Public Library; Miss Alice Bailey Keese, Cooperstown, N.Y.; Mrs.
T. Henry Dewey, Paris, France; Mrs. Edward Emerson Waters, New York
City; and Miss Mary C. Sheridan, Boston, Mass.