James Fenimore Cooper was a travel author. He was one of the first authors to produce works that included American history because he traveled many places in the United States and Europe to learn and compare their history. Cooper was born on September 15, 1789, in Burlington, New Jersey. On his mother’s side, he comes from a Quaker family, and his father serves as a Federalist Congressman. William Cooper, James’ father, moves the family to New York when James Cooper was only one. Cooper’s family consists of twelve children of which he was the eleventh. Cooper’s parents wanted him to attend school so they sent him to a private school in Albany. After this, Cooper attended Yale from 1803 to 1805 but that is the only fact known about his college career. He then joined the Navy as a midshipman. (Dekker) In 1809, Cooper faced hard times with his father’s death, which left him on his own in life. Then in 1811, he left the Navy and married Susan De Lancy. “For 10 years after his marriage Cooper led the active but unproductive life of a dilettante, dabbling in agriculture, politics, the American Bible Society, and the Westchester militia. It was in this amateur spirit that he wrote and published his first fiction, Precaution (1820), reputedly on a challenge from his wife.” (Dekker) From 1821 to 1826, Cooper would write five novels. Of these novels, they included The Spy (1821), The Pioneers (1823), The Pilot (1824), Lionel Lincoln (1824-1825), and The Last of the Mohicans (1826). On June 1, 1826, Cooper and his family would take a vacation to Europe. While here, he wrote his eighth book The Prairie (1827). This became one of his first travel novels. “But Cooper's series of five travel books, which he wrote after his return to America, would ultimately contribute to the decline of his popular reputation at home and abroad” (Gardner). Gardner writes the following about Cooper: Cooper found his European popularity both flatter