James Fenimore Cooper and Natty Bumppo

In The Pioneers (1823), the inaugural novel in the five book Leatherstocking Series, James Fenimore Cooper created Natty Bumppo, also known as Leatherstocking and Hawkeye. In the prolific career that would follow, comprised of twenty-nine years of steady writing until his death in 1851, Cooper would not create any more memorable character than Natty Bumppo.

What is it about Natty Bumppo that makes him such a compelling character? Is he a representative American-type, and if so, what does this type suggest about American society and culture?

Natty Bumppo, interestingly enough, was always a character from the past, not the present--neither ours nor Cooper's. Natty is a protagonist in the historical romance tradition, a man from a bygone era, whose last appearance occurs in the 1827 novel The Prairie, which is set in 1804. Eighty-years has Natty Bumppo at the start of this novel as he manages a life west of the Mississippi River, away from the settlements.

By contrast, in 1804, Cooper himself was a wilfull fifteen-year old, in the midst of an unillustrious career at Yale. About a year or so later, he would be expelled for some ill-concieved pyrotechnics involving a dorm room door. Despite his restless spirit, the fifteen-year old Cooper could not have been any farther from the prairie. Nineteen-years later, with four spent at sea, Cooper would give birth to Natty Bumppo.