With the publication of “The Spy” in 1821, James Fenimore Cooper became an international figure and the first authentic American novelist, free of the forms and conventions of the British fiction of the day. With “The Leatherstocking Tales” he became the first great interpreter of the American experience, chronicling the adventures of the indomitable Natty Bumppo, known variously as “Hawkeye,” “Deerslayer,” “Pathfinder,” “Leatherstocking” and other names, from the colonial Indian wars through the early expansion into the vast western plains.
Published between 1823 and 1841, beginning with “The Pioneers” and ending with “The Deerslayer”, the tales are set against historical events ranging from 1740 to 1804, with Cooper taking some literary license with the actual chronology of events, probably to avoid having Bumppo ranging the Great Plains at over 90 years of age. Continue reading “The Leatherstocking Tales”
Pearl Zane Grey (1872–1939) was an American author best known for his popular western adventure novels and stories. Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) was his best-selling book, and his westerns are still widely read, with many never having been out-of-print. In addition to the perennial commercial success of his individual books, a monthly subscription book club, over 100 film adaptations, several western television series episodes and a television series, Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater, have been based on Grey’s novels and short stories. 
In the history of English literature, few names loom larger than that of George Eliot. Born Mary Ann Evans on November 22, 1819, in rural Warwickshire, England, she transcended the limitations of her time to become one of the most acclaimed novelists of the Victorian era. Her life, marked by intellectual fervor, personal upheavals, and literary triumphs, is a testament to the power of intellect, empathy, and perseverance.
“I believe I could write a better story myself!” With these words, since become famous, James Fenimore Cooper laid aside the English novel which he was reading aloud to his wife. A few days later he submitted several pages of manuscript for her approval, and then settled down to the task of making good his boast. In November 1820, he gave the public a novel in two volumes, entitled Precaution. But it was published anonymously and dealt with English society in so much the same way as the average British novel of the time that its author was thought by many to be an Englishman. It had no originality and no real merit of any kind. Yet it was the means of inciting Cooper to another attempt. And this second novel made him famous.