Finding a Career. James Cooper (he would add Fenimore, his mother's name, in 1826) was the son of William Cooper, speculator and founder of Cooperstown, New fork. He attended Yale College from 1803 to 1805 but was dismissed for misconduct and never graduated. In 1806 Cooper went to sea to prepare for a career in the navy; he was commissioned a midshipman in 1808 and served for three and one-half years. After a series of professional failures Cooper found his vocation in 1820 when, on a whim, he wrote his first novel, Precaution. Between 1820 and his death in 1851, Cooper turned out more than thirty novels, several travel volumes, and a political tract, American Democrat (1838). As one of the first professional authors in the United States, Cooper proved that an American could earn a living from writing; The Spy (1821) alone brought him $4,000 in royalties in its first year of publication...