James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington， New Jersey， on September 15th， 1789. When he was only one year old， his family moved from Burlington to an enormous estate 1 on Otsego Lake，New York.Although the boy lived in a beautiful house on a huge estate， his home was surrounded by dense forests and wilderness. As a boy， he learned to use the bow and arrow， ride horseback， fish and shoot.Members of the Oneida Indian tribe still lived in the forest near his home. He met several Indians during his youth. His boyhood experiences formed the background for many of his novels.In 1801 he attended a Yale preparatory school for two years. Then he spent three years in the United States Navy.In 1811 Cooper married Susan DeLancey. He was wealthy and lived as a gentleman farmer in the state of New York.One evening he made a bet i with his wife. He bet that he could write a book that was better than the boring book he was reading！In 1820 he wrote his first novel， Precaution， which was not an important work.His second novel， The Spy （1821）， was the first important historical novel about the American Revolution. In 1823 he published The Pioneers， the first of five books about the courageous frontier scout 2 Natty Bumppo. These books were known as The Leatherstocking Tales. Natty Bumppo became a very popular character in Cooper's novels.Cooper's best-known work， The Last of the Mohicans， was published in 1826. This great novel was based on an American folk-tale. Here the character Natty Bumppo is called Hawkeye.With this novel， Cooper became world famous. The Last of the Mohicans had a great international appeal 3 because of its setting，its unforgettable characters， and its exciting plot.