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{ } The Cooper Doctrine: USE but don’twaste.

William Cooper Elizabeth Fenimore Cooper

       William Cooper Elizabeth Fenimore Cooper       James Cooper b. Sept 15, 1789

      William Cooper Elizabeth Fenimore Cooper        James Cooper b. Sept 15, 1789

James was expelled from Yale for: a) Failing six classes in two semesters after devoting time to writing for the Atlantic Monthly. b) Running up and down the quad naked with tomahawk in hand, claiming he was, indeed, “the last of the Mohicans.” c) Exploding another student’s door apart in the dormitory. d) Lampooning the Dean with satirical tracts of naval history.

Which author put Cooper on the path to authorship? a) Jane Austen b) Sir Walter Scott c) Amelia Opie d) William Cullen Bryant

Jane Austen c) Amelia Opie

“A new novel had been brought from England in the last monthly packet; it was, I think, one of Mrs. Opie's, or one of that school. My mother was not well; she was lying on the sofa, and he was reading this newly imported novel to her; it must have been very trashy; after a chapter or two he threw it aside, exclaiming, "I could write you a better book than that myself!" Our mother laughed at the idea, as the height of absurdity--he who disliked writing even a letter, that he should write a book! He persisted in his declaration, however, and almost immediately wrote the first pages of a tale, not yet named, the scene laid in England as a matter of course.”

Sir Walter Scott • Pioneered the HISTORICAL ROMANCE • Placed fictional stories in a realistic setting.- “Ivanhoe” - “Rob Roy” • Washington Irving also used this technique in his short stories.

THE NOBLE SAVAGE • Grows up apart from civilization • Develops his or her morality freed from the corrupting influences of civilization • Enlightenment idea first proposed by … • THOMAS JEFFERSON “… for I own that I grieve when I see old Mohegan walking about these lands, like the ghost of one of their ancient possessors, and feel how small is my own right to possess them.”

THE NOBLE SAVAGE LEATHER-STOCKING

LEATHER-STOCKING • First appears in Cooper’s third novel, The Pioneers (1823) as an older man named Nathaniel (or “Natty”) Bumpo, who shuns the new settlers and their civilized ways. • Achieved enduring fame in “prequels” like The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans, that portrayed his earlier adventures with his Mohican friend, Chingachgook “They say that there’s new laws in the land, and I am sartain that there’s new ways in the mountains. [The settlers] alter the country so much, one hardly knows the lakes and streams. I must say I’m mistrustful of such smooth speakers, for I’ve known the whites talk fair, when they wanted the Indian lands most.”

Natty Bumpo evokes the Frontier Hero • Rugged disposition • Confronts nature on its own terms • Romantic language • Strong • Silent • Resourceful • Lives by own code of Justice “Game is game, and he who finds may kill; that has been the law in these mountains for forty years, to my sartain knowledge; and I think one old law is worth two new ones.”

1826 1833

Which of the following was President Andrew Jackson NOT involved in: a) The consumption of 1,400 pounds of cheddar cheese in two hours. b) Ratification of more Indian land sales than any other U.S. president c) The removal – and subsequent deaths – of more than 3,000 Cherokee. d) The first assassination attempt on a U.S. president.

“What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization and religion?” ~ Dec 6th, 1830

“Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.”

“I would sooner be honestly damned than hypocritically immortalized.”

Return Home:1836

“… a pamphlet is put into my hands, containing the remarks of another, who condemns all that his rival praises, and praises all that his rival condemns. There I am, left like an ass between two locks of hay; so that I have determined to relinquish my animate nature, and remain stationary, like a lock of hay between two asses.”

“Physical suffering cannot properly be enumerated among [it]s evils” What is the “it”? a) spousal abuse b) slavery c) child birth d) cock-fighting

On Leather-stocking after Cooper’s death: "They may say what they will of Cooper; the man who wrote this book is not only a great man, but a good man.” - William Cullen Bryant, 1852

“When Daniel Boone walks, at night, The phantom deer arise. And all lost, wild America Is burning in their eyes.” - Stephen Vincent Benet

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