The Deerslayer or, The First War-Path; A Tale

512 pages. Frontispiece. Footnotes. Preface to the Leather-stocking Tales. Preface. Marbled cover and endpapers. Spine and corners in leather. Cover is worn and soiled. Spine is worm, torn and chipped. James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789–September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought him fame and fortune. He lived much of his boyhood and his last 15 years in Cooperstown, New York, which was founded by his father William Cooper on property that he owned. He attended Yale University for three years, where he was a member of the Linonian Society. Cooper served in the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, where he learned the technology of managing sailing vessels, which greatly influenced many of his novels and other writings. The novel that launched his career was The Spy, a tale about espionage set during the American Revolutionary War and published in 1821. He also created American sea stories. His best-known works are five historical novels of the frontier period, written between 1823 and 1841, known as the Leatherstocking Tales, which introduced the iconic American frontier scout, Natty Bumppo. Cooper's works on the U.S. Navy have been well received among naval historians. The Last of the Mohicans is often regarded as his masterpiece. During his career, he published numerous social, political, and historical works of fiction and nonfiction, with the objective of countering European prejudices and nurturing an original American art and culture. The Deerslayer, or The First War-Path was James Fenimore Cooper's fifth and last novel published in 1841 in his Leatherstocking Tales. Its 1740–1745 time period makes it the first installment chronologically and in the lifetime of the hero of the Leatherstocking tales, Natty Bumppo. The novel's setting on Otsego Lake in central, upstate New York, is the same as that of The Pioneers, the first of the Leatherstocking Tales to be published (1823). The Deerslayer is considered to be the prequel to the rest of the series. Fenimore Cooper begins his work by relating the astonishing advance of civilization in New York State, which is the setting of four of his five Leatherstocking Tales. This novel introduces Natty Bumppo as "Deerslayer," a young frontiersman in early 18th-century New York, who objects to the practice of taking scalps, on the grounds that every living thing should follow "the gifts" of its nature, which would keep European Americans from taking scalps. Two characters who actually seek to take scalps are Deerslayer's foil Henry March (alias "Hurry Harry") and the former pirate 'Floating Tom' Hutter, to whom Deerslayer is introduced en route to a rendezvous with the latter's lifelong friend Chingachgook (who first appeared as "Indian John" in The Pioneers). Shortly before the rendezvous, Hutter's residence is besieged by the Hurons, and Hutter and March sneak into the camp of the besiegers to kill and scalp as many as they can, but they are captured in the act, and later ransomed by Bumppo, Chingachgook, and Hutter's daughters Judith and Hetty. Bumppo and Chingachgook thereafter plan to rescue Chingachgook's kidnapped betrothed Wah-ta-Wah (alias 'Hist') from the Hurons, but while rescuing her, Bumppo is captured. In his absence, the Hurons attack Hutter's home, and Hutter is scalped alive. On his deathbed, he confesses that Judith and Hetty were not his daughters by birth, and Judith determines to discover her natural father's identity, but her search reveals only that her late mother had been of aristocratic descent, and had married 'Floating Tom' after the collapse of an illicit affair. Later, Judith attempts and fails to rescue Deerslayer from the Hurons. They are all saved at last when March returns with British troops, who ambush the Hurons and kill most of them; Hetty is mortally wounded in the confusion. After Hetty's death, Jud.…