James Fenimore Cooper
(1789 – 1851)
A popular American writer.
Cooper's historical romances of Indian life created a unique form of American literature: his best-known works are five historical novels of the frontier period known as the Leatherstocking Tales.
The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (first published in 1826) is the second book of the Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy and the best known to contemporary readers. It is set in 1757, during the French and Indian War, and tells the story of transportation of the two daughters of Colonel Munro, Alice and Cora, from the upper New York wilderness to a safe destination. The novel was widely popular in its days and is often regarded as Cooper's greatest masterpiece.