The Leatherstocking Tales have been a point of cultural reference and a national monument. They are one of the first examples of a literary genre that has found imitators as well as innovators for more than 150 years. As action stories, they have suffered criticism and a negative connotation, yet the adventure story can claim such unquestioned works of literary merit as the novels of Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway. Cooper himself was strongly influenced by the romantic stories of Walter Scott, and they became models for his narrative technique. He was also, like many of his contemporaries, fascinated and awed by the enormity of a large, seemingly endless continent full of adventure and incredible possibilities. He admired the men who braved this wilderness and their heroic stature, both good and evil. A nineteenth-century writer who brought the noble frontiersman and his red brother to a wide...