James Fenimore Cooper

Today would have been James Fenimore Cooper's 218th birthday. He is best remembered today for his excellent The Last of the Mohicans. When the movie of the same name was released in 1992 - I decided to read the book. I liked the book so much I decided to read some more of Cooper's works. Unfortunelately, everything else I picked up by Cooper I found completely unreadable. Just awful stuff.

It s possible that I just picked up the wrong books but something tells me that Cooper caught lightning in a bottle with The Last of the Mohicans. The thing is, if you read about Cooper, you find that he was considered perhaps the preeminent American writer of his age. I think that just goes to show how little in the literary world is timeless.

By the way - Cooperstown in New York (home to the Baseball Hall of Fame) is named after James Fenimore Cooper's father.