James Fenimore Cooper

Born in Burlington, New Jersey; his family subsequently moved to Cooperstown, New York; began literary career in the 1820s; prominent author who published five novels set on the expanding American frontier (The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, The Deerslayer, and The Pathfinder) collectively known as the Leatherstocking Tales; died in Cooperstown. (See Dictionary of American Biography, 2:400–406; GQC journal, July 23, 1851.)