3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘The Last of the Mohicans': James Fenimore Cooper's Vibrant American Adventure
It is impossible to overstate the extraordinary influence that James Fenimore Cooper has exerted on modern letters. He stands alongside Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe as forefather of a literary tradition that illustrates the unique complexities, joys and challenges of American life. Combining detailed accounts of real-world events with action, adventure and painterly imagery, Cooper's historical romances fundamentally transformed the craft of prose-writing. They inspired writers at home and abroad to dream up new forms of storytelling: Without Cooper, we would not have the serialized epics of Hugo and Dumas, the seafaring tales of Melville and London, and the entirety of the American western genre.
This summer marks 200 years since Cooper wrote his finest and most universally admired work, 'The Last of the Mohicans,' a trailblazing text that helped establish early Americans' shared sense of identity and purpose. Fittingly, its publication in early 1826 coincided with the 50th anniversary of the nation's founding. As the semiquincentennial celebration draws near, now is a good time to return to the novel's entertaining and instructive visions of life before the Revolution.
