NATTI BUMPO - LEATHER STOCKING

After falling to the lot of "Spy" universal success, Cooper decides to seriously engage in literature and intends to move with his family to New York to be closer to his publishers. The yellow fever epidemic that broke out in the city in the summer of 1822 delayed this move, and the Coopers settled in a comfortable rented house only in the fall. Pigs were still free to roam the streets of New York, but this rapidly growing city no longer without reason claimed the role of a national and even an international center. More recently, when George Washington arrived in the city to take over as the first president of the United States, New York City had fewer than 30,000 residents, including roughly 2,000 slaves. According to the 1820 census, the population has already exceeded 123 thousand people. The port of New York competed with the Boston port, industry and trade developed successfully in the city, several newspapers and magazines were published here. Of course, the conservative Boston remained the country's literary and intellectual center, but the very fact that America's first novelist settled in New York attracted the attention of readers throughout the country to the city.

Cooper loved New York, he called it "beautiful, huge and generous" city. He was now not only his own man among the New York intellectuals, but also the center of a small circle of writers who regularly gathered in the back room of the famous Charles Wiley bookstore in the city. Cooper willingly took part in the city's social events, whether it was an exhibition of paintings, horse races, or a ceremonial welcome from General Lafayette who came from France. His coverage of these city events was featured in the local newspapers Patriot and New York American. “He radiated such fresh hope, such a powerful impulse and especially such a purely American enthusiasm that testified not only to personal glory, but also to national honor,” one of his acquaintances characterized Cooper of this period.

But behind this brilliant outer side of the life of the famous writer hid another - full of anxiety and disorder. By this time, the inheritance received after the death of his father was spent. Father's lands were first mortgaged and re-mortgaged, and then plummeted in value and were sold for next to nothing to pay debts.

Literature studies have not yet brought in serious income. Debts were growing, creditors were not appeased. It got to the point that in the fall of 1823 the New York sheriff described all the Coopers' household property for debts, and it was only thanks to a lucky chance that it was not sold under the hammer. For several years, all of Cooper's income went to pay debts. He wanted to go to Europe, but there was nothing to think about until he paid off his debts. Nevertheless, he, his wife and children begin to learn French.

The financial situation of the writer could not be improved by the European editions of his books, since publishers in Europe were not bound by legal agreements with their American colleagues. It was required first to publish books in England, and then in America, where his rights as an American citizen were protected by law. But this could be done only on condition that he himself also lived in Europe.

All these problems, compounded by the protracted quarrel with his father-in-law, worried Cooper very much. He became irritable, he was tormented by headaches, attacks of melancholy were found. And yet he continued to work on a new book. As you know, one swallow does not make spring. So the appearance of Cooper's first typically American novel, despite its success, did not lead other American writers to immediately write on purely American themes on American materials. The famous American historian Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924) noted in 1884 in his article “Colonialism in America” that in the first quarter of the 19th century “... no, not the British, - their own countrymen. "

But Cooper also created his new novel on typically American material, with typically American heroes at its center. The action of his new novel took place "in the very heart of New York State," in a vast region, "... where high hills alternate with wide ravines, or, as they often write in geographical books, where mountains alternate with valleys." The novel was named "The Pioneers, or At the Origins of Susquehanna."

“I billed this work as a 'descriptive story,'” Cooper reports on November 29, 1822, to his English publisher John Murray, “but probably too much to limit myself to what I saw as a young man. I understand that the current taste prefers action and strong experiences, and therefore I must admit that in this sense the first two volumes are clearly suffering. I still hope that the third volume will somehow rectify the situation. If the truth is still worth something, then the pictures I have described exactly correspond to reality, and I will calmly meet the most picky researchers. But let's leave the final decision to the reading public, I believe that they rarely make mistakes. "

In February 1823, The Pioneers, or At the Beginning of Susquehanna, appeared almost simultaneously in the book markets of America and England. The success of the novel has surpassed even the wildest expectations. In the United States, the entire first print run - 3,500 copies - was sold out by noon on the first day of publication. “This is really something new for the United States,” Niles Weekly Register noted in this regard. American researchers of Cooper's creativity suggest that such a stir was caused by the publication in newspapers on the eve of the release of an excerpt from the novel containing the scene of the heroine's rescue from a panther. Newspapers continued to publish excerpts from the book after its release and stopped printing them only at the request of the publisher.

As in the previous book of the writer, by the very name of the novel, Cooper quite accurately determined both the nature of his characters and the place of action. The pioneers in the United States of America have long been called the first settlers in new areas, the discoverers of new lands. The novel takes place at the source of the Susquehanna River, where it flows from the southern part of Lake Otsego, that is, in places that Cooper is familiar with. Here stood his father's house, here he spent his childhood, here he learned to read and write, knew the first joys of life. Here he spent his first years after his marriage. Many of his friends and acquaintances lived here.

Of course, all this could not but leave its mark on the novel, especially since the events described in it relate to the years of the early childhood of the writer. The English literary critic James Grossman remarked in this regard: “In its mood, the novel is a wise pastoral, in which a slight mockery of what is described is combined with admiration. And the description of the pictures of the common labor of the settlers is marked not only by sentimentality, but also by a good amount of skepticism. "

In a letter to the English publisher of the book, Cooper, as we know, emphasized the veracity and reliability of the events described in it. “This adamant adherence to truth,” he wrote in the preface to one of the later editions of the novel, “is a necessary part of books on history and travel, but it destroys the charm of art, for the artistic reconstruction of reality is much more fully achieved by depicting heroes in accordance with their social position and their actions, rather than the most thorough adherence to primary sources. "

The novel has a subtitle - "A Descriptive Story," and many American readers still take this subtitle literally, believing that Cooper described real people in the novel. The prototypes of Judge Marmaduke Temple and his daughter Elizabeth are said to be none other than the writer's father Judge William Cooper and the writer's sister Hannah. And many of the characters in the novel also allegedly had their prototypes in real life. According to some American historians, this applies to Oliver Edwards - Effingham, to Sheriff Richard Jones, and to the good-natured servant Benjamin. But, as the writer's daughter said, the similarities between the characters in the novel and those who actually lived were purely general: "The novel represented groups of people, not separate individuals."

Cooper really did not write his book as a historical work in the strict sense of this genre: he did not depict real persons, did not describe existing cities and villages. As a novelist, he was primarily interested in human relationships, he believed that a writer is one who “delves into the worries and sufferings of ordinary people, whose genius descends to people of low income, who follows the Lord God when he teaches the insensitive and cruel, explaining to them, how deep the wounds they inflict and what a terrible retribution they can call. "

In May 1822, just as Cooper was working on The Pioneers, his reviews of Bracebridge were published in the quarterly Literary and Scientific Repository and Critical Review. Hall "by Washington Irving and" A Case in New England "by Catherine M. Sedgwick. In these articles, Cooper gives some advice to writers looking to create truly American works. He believed that they should avoid topics such as politics, religion, educational problems, and should focus on “our local mores, social and moral influence exerted indirectly, on general relationships and on those local characteristics that form our distinctive features among the people of the earth. " And further he noted that such topics "are very rarely observed in our literature."

Interesting prose, he continued, no matter how paradoxical this statement may seem, appeals to our love of truth, but not to that simple love of facts, expressed in true names and dates, but to the love of the highest truth dictated by nature and principles, which constitutes the primordial law of the human mind ... A good novel primarily addresses our moral foundations - our conscience, as well as those good feelings and good principles that Providence has planted in us, constantly reminding us that “we all have one human heart".

And, having conceived a novel about the days of his childhood - the action of Pioneers takes place in 1793-1794, that is, when the future writer was 4-5 years old - Cooper chose places dear to his heart as the scene of action and depicted in the novel well-known human types. However, he did not seek to give an accurate description of the real-life village and its inhabitants. “Although the Cooperstown area is described in scenes from The Pioneers, the village itself is not. The same applies in general to the characters, although, prompted by memories, the author applied here and there several strokes, which make many think that he intended to do more in this direction than it really was ... The family and personal history of Marmaduke Temple is in no way - in the literal sense - unlike my father ... Cooperstown never had not a single house like the one described in The Pioneers.

The famous researcher of the life and work of Cooper, Professor James Franklin Beard, notes in one of his studies that the first reviewers of the Pioneers and friends of the writer who personally knew Cooper's late father and sister never connected the heroes of the novel with these real people they knew well. References to the similarity of the persons in the novel with the writer's relatives became especially frequent in the 30s. Cooper was forced to publish a special refutation of such allegations contained in the book published in 1839 in New York by his friend, the English actor Charles A. Murray "Travels in North America in the years 1834, 1835 and 1836".

Following the rules he set for himself, Cooper portrayed the typical circumstances of life in the newly populated areas of America in the late 18th century in the novel. In doing so, he used not only personal observations, but also available historical works. In one of his letters from 1842, Cooper noted that in the development of the plot of the Pioneers, he was greatly helped by the work of the historian Robert Proud, The History of Pennsylvania in North America, since the official proclamation and settlement of this province under the first owner and governor William Penn in 1681 and before the period after 1742 ”, published in Philadelphia in 1797. It was from Proud's work that the writer learned the very idea of ​​the relationship between the Effingham and Temple families, when the inheritance of one, due to circumstances, is in the hands of another.

As is known from the novel, Marmaduke Temple did not abuse the trust placed in him by Colonel Effingham. However, in life there were many cases when such trust was abused and thereby deprived the legal heirs of their share of the inheritance. There were also cases when the heirs filed lawsuits demanding the restoration of the inheritance without any legal basis, but only on the basis of rumors and dubious documents.

The latter example was all too familiar to Cooper. After the death of his father, he, like the other five children of the judge, inherited 50 thousand dollars in cash and significant allotments of land. Note that all the land property of the late judge was estimated at about half a million dollars. At one time, the judge, along with partner Andrew Craig, acquired the rights to 20 thousand acres of land from the inheritance of Colonel George Kroghan. The heirs of Kroghan at various times raised the issue of the legality of the transaction and intended to take the case to court. Cooper knew about this, but his family had the original documents of the deal at their disposal, and therefore he was not afraid of threats.

It is interesting that the heirs of Krogkhan, already in our time, again raised the question of the legality of that old deal. A certain Albert T. Wolweiler published in 1926 the book "George Kroghan and the Movement to the West, 1741-1782", in which, based on the statements of the colonel's heirs, he questioned the legality of the agreement between Cooper-Craig and Kroghan. In 1931, the writer's late great-great-grandson, also James Fenimore Cooper, in an article in the journal of the Historical Association of the State of New York, on the basis of preserved original documents, proved the absurdity of accusing his distant ancestor of dishonesty.

Some American literary historians claim that Cooper was aware that the heirs of Kroghan were questioning the legality of the sale of their ancestor's lands, which allegedly served as material for describing the entire confusing history of relationships between the Temple and Effingham families. It is difficult to dispute such a statement, however, from the testimony of American historians it is quite clear that situations like the one that developed between Judge Temple and the son of his former partner were quite frequent in those days among more or less wealthy people, and Cooper did not sin at all. when he portrayed a similar situation in the novel.

The characters in the novel can easily be divided into two main groups. On the one hand, Judge Marmaduke Temple, a wealthy owner of vast lands, and other new settlers, drunk with their freedom and strength, arrogant and arrogant. On the other hand, there are the trinity of those who have been deprived of everything by society. Indian John Mohican or Chingachgook, whose tribe once owned all of this land. Hunter Natty Bumpo, who came to these lands before the judge and whose hunting rights are now limited by law. And Oliver Effingham, a young stranger, mistakenly believes that it was the judge who robbed him of his legal inheritance.

The complex and sometimes contradictory relationships between these two groups of people constitute the actual canvas of the novel and reveal to the readers a picture of the mores of the American hinterland in the period described. Before us is one of the first acts of a huge and heavy multi-act drama, which much later was called "How the West Was Conquered."

From the pages of the novel "The Pioneers", the pioneer, pathfinder and hunter Natty Bumpo, also known as Leather Stocking, Long Carabiner, Hawkeye, first appeared before the readers. This cocky, rude, talkative seventy-year-old hunter lives out his life on the shores of Lake Otsego, within the domain of the local judge Marmaduke Temple. The romantic love story of the daughter of Judge Elizabeth and Oliver Edwards, a young associate of Leather Stocking, who turned out to be the son of Colonel Effingham, an old friend of the judge, is told by Cooper not only with a masterful insight into the true life of a remote corner of the country, but also with an accurate sense of the real problems that at the time worried many Americans. American literary scholars noted that when working on the novel, the writer was helped by "patriotism, skill in portrayal and knowledge of human characters ..."

If "The Spy" was a historical novel in the full sense of this concept, then "The Pioneers" became a modern novel, even topical, because it raised problems that were very real for America of those years - the inheritance of land estates, the conquest of new lands, the attitude of a new generation to those who, with an ax and a gun in their hands, paved the first paths and founded the first settlements in the still recently virgin forests.

As noted, Cooper was well aware of the people and places he was describing in the new novel. However, American literary scholars argue that Natty Bumpo, who later became the protagonist of a series of novels about Leather Stocking, did not have a real prototype. Natty Bumpo is a generalized image of a hunter and a trapper who does not accept and does not understand the "onset of progress" and goes deep into the country under its pressure. Contemporary American critics have noted, in connection with the 1986 edition of the Leather Stocking series, that Natty Bumpo "demonstrates the clarity of mind and moral confidence that can only be achieved through genuine closeness to nature."

Natty, observing the life of the new settlers, cannot understand much. Why, for example, are they burning maple trees in the hearths, from the sap of which sugar is produced? What is the point in exterminating thousands of pigeons? Why are they dragging hundreds of pounds of the most delicate fish out of Lake Otsego with nets, thereby devastating the lake? These "wasteful habits" are incomprehensible to the old hunter, accustomed to be content with little and at the same time anxious for the preservation of virgin nature, understanding both its beauty and its usefulness for man. He is outraged by what is happening around him and in the depths of his soul despises all these people who, in the pursuit of well-being, blindly destroy nature, which provides them with a comfortable existence. But he alone can do nothing but notice with bitterness; "As far as I understand, the force is always right - here and in the old places." And therefore he strives further to the West, to new places, to where no man's foot has yet set foot.

Moreover, nothing keeps him in Templeton: his faithful friend Chingachgook fell asleep with his last sleep; found his happiness and fortune Oliver, who married the daughter of the judge Elizabeth. And Natty sets off on a further journey, actually paving the way to the West for those conquerors of new lands, from whom he runs.

The image of Natty is far from the main one in the novel. But it attracted the attention of both readers and critics. He was compared to the famous conqueror of new lands, Daniel Boone. There were also real hunters who claimed that Natty was copied from them. Two old hunters, brothers Nathaniel and David Shipman, one of whom lived near Cooperstown and whom Cooper knew personally, claimed that they were the type of Natty. But the writer categorically denied this, emphasizing that the image of Natty, like all others in the novel, is collective, typical for a certain group of people.

American literary scholars have drawn attention to the contradiction characteristic of Cooper's early writings. On the one hand, he was attracted by the creation of such fictional images as Garvey Birch and Natty Bumpo, and on the other hand, loyalty to the truth of life and simply literary conscientiousness pushed him to a realistic description of the life of the landowners of the Whartons or the judge Marmaduke Temple. But, as today's reader understands, there has never been a real contradiction here. For both Garvey Birch and Natty Bumpo, for all their romantic essence, remain realistic images representing certain, real-life people. And they are depicted so realistically that for many years the debate about which of the really existing people is the prototype of these typically literary heroes did not stop.

The drunken old Indian John Mohican, whose real name is Chingachgook, appears for the first time on the pages of "Pioneers". Together with his friend Leather Stocking, he grieves over the irrevocably gone times when they led the life of free hunters in free lands. Chingachgook's image is also a completely literary creation of the writer. Cooper in childhood and early adolescence met in Cooperstown with Indians, many of them hunted in the surrounding forests, fished in Lake Otsego. But they did not have their own settlements in the vicinity of Cooperstown, they came and again went to the places where the graves of their ancestors were.

When Cooper was five years old, the last "Indian alarm" hit Cooperstown. In the vicinity of the village, a large group of Indians was seen, secretly moving in an unknown direction. Cooperstown was brought into a firing position: windows and doors of houses were barricaded, hunting rifles and antique pistols loaded. The evening and a good part of the night passed in tense anticipation. In the middle of the night in the village, the trampling of horses was heard and shots rang out. Concerned residents with weapons in their hands ran out into the streets. It turned out that a group of mounted sheriffs had returned to the village, leaving in pursuit of the counterfeiters. They celebrated the joy of returning with pistol shots into the air.

He remembered Cooper and the lonely Indian who had brought fresh game and fish to the judge's table for many years. This was the end of his personal acquaintance with the Indians. Therefore, he seriously studied all the writings on the Indians and their fate in the United States.

Cooper himself was not only kind to the Indians, but also tried to help them as best he could. In 1851, the Indian chief Copway, who converted to the Methodist religion and became a missionary, decided to publish a magazine dedicated to the Indians. Cooper was interested in this undertaking. “Red-skinned people have every right to have their interests protected, and I hope you can do much for their benefit,” he wrote to Copway on June 17, 1851.

Copway highly appreciated Cooper's work. “Of all the writers of our beloved homeland, you more than anyone else appreciated the trampled race,” Copway told the writer. - In your books, the noble character traits of the Indians are shown in their true light. In my travels in England, Scotland, France and other European countries, I was often asked: "Is Mr. Cooper faithfully portraying the American Indians?" And I always answered with great pleasure in one word: "Yes!"

Chingachgook dies in a forest fire when Natty saves Judge Elizabeth's daughter from death for the second time, this time from the fire.

Already the first serious review of the novel, published in March 1823 in the magazine Portfolio, noted that the action in the novel takes place in “a village on the border of the advancement of Europeans, with ordinary characters who preferred a primitive existence to civilized dwellings”, “the plot of the novel is deeply connected with the birth of a new nation ”. At the same time, the reviewer emphasized that “... the novel can truly be ranked among the historical ones. For a historian will rarely be able to find a more accurate and vivid description of the first settlements among virgin forests. "

The reviewer came to the conclusion that "the plot of the novel ... is described by the pen of an eyewitness, which was led by the hand of a true master."

Although the highly prestigious North American Review and major English literary quarterly magazines did not respond to the novel in the year it was published, no American novel before that, with the exception of The Spy, had such a favorable press as The Pioneers. The demand for the novel was so great that the newspapers felt it their duty to announce when the packs of books arrived in their city. Philadelphia on February 3, 1823, Baltimore on February 5, Washington and Boston on February 7, and so on.

It is known that the novel was delayed in release partly due to the yellow fever epidemic that swept New York in the spring and summer of 1822, and partly due to unfavorable circumstances in the life of the writer. On June 22, 1822, Cooper's whaling ship returned to New York with 16,532 gallons of whale oil on board. It was necessary to immediately sell the cargo and the ship itself, which Cooper was unable to maintain further. Debtors filed lawsuits. All this demanded Cooper's personal involvement and kept him from working on the novel.

And the writer was in a hurry to finish "Pioneers", he was afraid that readers might forget his name. An old friend Jacob Sutherland, to whom Cooper dedicated The Pioneers, being aware of the writer's fears, reassured him on March 15, 1822: "You have become so firmly in the public's mind that you can spend the necessary time writing the next work without fear that the public will forget you." ...

The reading public, meanwhile, was worried about where Cooper's long-promised new novel was. For example, a recent Harvard graduate Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote to his fellow practitioner John Boynton Hill on November 12, 1822: “Since Scott did not repeat his own successes in his last two works, our young novelist grew even more important. I hope you know the Spy has been translated into French and is popular in Paris. But about his second brainchild - "At the origins of Susquehanna" - I do not hear anything. What is the reason?"

Another reader from Charleston, South Carolina, after reading the novel on February 20, 1823, sent the following letter to publisher Charles Wiley: “My eyes are wet, but I can still ask you to convey my heart gratitude for the pleasure he gave me. This book is the greatest literary honor given to our country. " The author of the letter signed in a rather peculiar way: "Lover of every nail driven into the temple of America's glory."

Indeed, with his new novel, Cooper contributed to the rise and rise of American literature and the American nation. But if individual readers of the novel were fully aware of this, then, as the expert of this period, Professor James F. Veeru testifies, “American criticism was not prepared to properly consider such a complex work as The Pioneers.

At first glance, it may seem that the Pioneers were not deprived of the attention of American critics. Already in the year of publication, about twenty reviews and responses to the novel appeared in various newspapers and magazines of the country. The newspapers of Washington, Baltimore and New York, such various magazines as the Portfolio mentioned by us, the National Gazette and Literary Register, and a number of others responded to the publication of the novel. And although, as the United States Gazette reviewer noted, the novel was greeted with only a few "dissonant notes", in the author's own opinion, it "enjoyed only moderate success." Researchers corroborate this somewhat pessimistic note by Cooper by citing progress in the sale of the novel. If the "Spy" from the date of publication until the beginning of 1825 went through three editions in the USA and two in England, then the "Pioneers" in the same period were published in both countries once. Moreover, in England, even in July 1826, the publisher had several more unsold copies of the first edition of The Pioneers.

A certain S. B. Kh. Judah, editor and playwriter, published in 1823 a vicious and defamatory poetic satire on Cooper and his friends in connection with the release of The Pioneers. Judah was tried, found guilty and sentenced to a fine and imprisonment. But there were other unjustified attacks on the novel. For example, the poet James Gates Percival, whom Cooper, incidentally, assisted, wrote about the novel: “I do not expect anything from those who sponsor such a vulgar book as The Pioneers. We got rid of each other easily. They neglect me, and I despise them. "

And although both of these reviews belonged to the pen of disillusioned and envious writers who did not find their place in the literary environment, but claiming undue attention, they nevertheless reflected the discontent of many. A large mass of readers, among whom there were many people of literary work, did not understand the novelty and depth of Cooper's new novel. The pursuit of wealth that swept the country, the desire to get rich by any means left its mark on public opinion. Such readers were alien to the noble ideas of the novel, the pure aspirations of the eccentric Natty Bumpo, and even the actions of the "aristocratic farmer" Marmaduke Temple did not find any response or approval from them. They condemned the noise raised around the novel. For example, the magazine Minerva published a sharply negative review of the novel, in which he advised the writer, if he takes up his pen again, blow less bubbles before the book is published - let it float or sink by itself. One should not gain reputation through the inspired statements of the newspapers. "

And nevertheless, if in Europe the scenes described in the novel could nevertheless seem to be a play of the imagination, and the characters in them were the product of irrepressible invention, then thinking Americans had not the slightest doubt about the veracity of the people and events depicted. They more than once visited the village described in the novel, swam in the waters along which John Mohican sailed in his light canoe, watched a forest fire similar to what happened in the novel. “Pioneers,” the Portfolio reviewer noted in this regard, “present us with these pictures, depicted with such richness and vividness that the reader is, as it were, in the center of what is happening and is personally acquainted with each character”.

Deep understanding of human characters, the ability to truthfully portray them, skill in describing nature, purely American patriotism, manifested in "The Spy", found their further development in the new novel by Cooper. But the greatest achievement of the writer was the creation of the image of the old hunter Natty Bumpo - Leather Stocking, an image that will make the name of the writer immortal. But in "The Pioneers" Natty is assigned a far from central role, and the heroic essence of his nature becomes clear only towards the end of the novel.

A number of critics have noted the true meaning of this quintessentially American image. Thus, a reviewer of the London magazine Retrospective Review and Historical and Antique Varian Magesin wrote: "Natty enters our imagination like an obsessive anomaly, and leaves us like a dream, retiring after the setting sun, leaving the reader as his friend forever."

And nevertheless, the tragedy of this image for many remained a mystery. Natty Bumpo's moral code was so inconsistent with the ingrained customs and mores of average Americans that they perceived it as pure invention of the author. Of course, the leading people of their time, such as the famous philosopher and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson or the writer Richard G. Dana Jr., understood the importance of the novel as a whole for the development of national character, and the role of the image of Natty Bumpo in this. Unfortunately, neither one nor the other expressed their thoughts publicly at the time of the appearance of "Pioneers". But on April 2, 1823, the poet Richard G. Dana Sr. wrote in a private letter to the author of the novel regarding the image of Natty:

“The majestic and sublime, as he is portrayed, is in no way a departure from the truth. We read about him in a book imbued with inspiration, look at this picture and imagine ourselves. But, alas, too few people feel this inspiration - and even what is contained in another book, sent down to us by God himself. Natty's uneducated mind, presented to us in terms of the lower classes, combined with innate eloquence, plus his solitary life, his venerable age, his simplicity combined with delicacy - all this creates a noble and very specific feeling of admiration, regret and anxiety. ... His image was created on such a high note that I was afraid if this note would be able to be sustained to the end. But it grows in our eyes to the very final scene, which is probably the best, and certainly the most touching in the entire book. One of my friends said about Natty's departure: "I wish I could leave with him."

The reader can only guess how and where Natty spent his youth and mature years. He appears before us in his declining years, but still retaining his childish gullibility, openness, unwillingness and inability to understand the full depth of the changes taking place in life. In his soul and thoughts, Natty belongs to the passing past, but with his real life, his actions, he unwittingly paves the way for a bourgeois civilization, which he himself cannot perceive. He is "one of the first among those pioneers who open up new lands in the country for their people." And the more majestic and meaningful this common man becomes. This feature of Natty's image was pointed out by A.M. Gorky: “All his life he unconsciously served the great cause of the geographical spread of material culture in the land of wild people and was unable to live in the conditions of this culture, the paths for which he first opened. This is often the fate of many pioneer scouts, people who, studying life, go deeper and farther than their contemporaries. And from this point of view, the illiterate Bumpo is almost an allegorical figure, joining the ranks of those true friends of humanity, whose sufferings and deeds so richly adorn our lives. "

Faced with the realities of civilization, this time in the form of "the fat pocket of Judge Marmaduke Temple" and "crooked ways of the law", having lost his last friend Chingachgook, Natty chooses the only acceptable path for himself - going further to the West. He is not attracted by the comforts of civilization - they are organically alien to him, nor by the offer of the young couple Oliver and Elizabeth to spend the rest of their lives comfortably with them. But Natty, he said, was born to "live in the wilderness."

Oliver and Elizabeth heartily sympathize with the impoverished and disadvantaged Mohican and Leather Stocking, but they cannot, cannot understand that higher humanity that drives all of Natty's actions. And he goes to the West, towards difficulties and hardships, which, in his words, are "the greatest joy that I still have in my life."

In one of his articles, Cooper noted that an active writer, in order to "maintain his reputation", must either "cultivate a new field, or reap a richer crop from the old." He himself always moved to a new field and cultivated it in such a way that the harvest he received was much richer than what others harvested from the already developed fields. This applied to "The Spy" and fully applies to "Pioneers" and to other novels of the writer, which we will talk about later.

Subsequently, when four other novels of the Leather Stocking pentalogy were created, critics have repeatedly wondered why Cooper began his series from the end. One explanation was that during this period, the inhabitants of the East American states, who got rid of the threat of Indian tribes and put an end to the squatter settlers, felt nostalgia for the passing times and needed works that would capture this past forever gone. Natty Bumpo and Chingachgook were the visible embodiment of this longing for those not so distant days when simple human dignities were in price - courage, dedication, kindness, the desire to help others.

Cooper was able to discern the possibilities hidden in these two simple representatives of the not-so-distant American past, and made them the heroes of four more of his novels. At the same time, with each new novel, with the exception of Prairie, the heroes became younger and farther and deeper into the depths of years and forests. This order of writing novels gave rise to the notorious writer D.G. Lawrence, an Englishman who has lived in America for many years, declare that the Leather Stocking series, in the order of its creation, is a "decrescendo of reality and a crescendo of beauty." Let's leave this beautiful musical statement on the conscience of a venerable, but far from indisputable critic. We only note that in the subsequent novels of the series about Natty Bumpo - Leather Stocking, reality does not diminish at all. Each of them was created on the basis of real facts, reflects the real features of the period described, and together they recreate a real picture of an entire era of American history.

Charles Wiley, a New York publisher of Cooper's books, was in financial trouble in 1823. To help him, Cooper wrote two short stories, which were published under the name "Stories for Fifteen Years" under the pseudonym Jane Morgan. These stories - "Imagination" and "Heart" - are typical highly moral sentimental stories in the spirit of the sentimental stories of fashionable English writers. Both stories are sustained in the tradition of sentimental prose and do not honor the pen of such an extraordinary writer as Cooper had already become by this time.

Cooper's interests during this period were not limited to literary work. He collaborated with publisher Charles Uyali and Charles Gardner in the publication of Literary and Scientific Repositories in an effort to transform it into an influential quarterly publication. He also devoted a lot of time to the Patriot daily, owned and edited by Charles Gardner. He often meets at Wylie's bookstore with New York newspaper editors, financiers, lawyers. Several times he travels to Boston to visit his friend, the naval officer William Branford Shubrick, with whom he became friends during his service on the ship "Wasp-18". Their friendship grew stronger over the years. Cooper always listened with interest to Shubrik's stories about the latest events in the navy. He appreciated his friend's intelligence, sense of humor and generosity.

CHAPTER 9. A Chapter for My Father At Edwards Air Force Base (1956-1959), my father had access to the strictest military secrets. During that period, I was constantly kicked out of school, and my father was afraid that because of this he would be lowered the degree of secrecy? or even kicked out of work. He said,

Chapter Sixteen Chapter, which seems to have nothing to do with the previous ones I would be wrong if in the book called "My Profession" I say nothing at all about the whole section of work that cannot be excluded from my life. The work that arose unexpectedly, literally

CHAPTER 13 NUTTI BUMPO AGAIN The United States continued to expand over the years, expanding westward and southward. The expansion was carried out primarily at the expense of territories that belonged to the Indians. President Andrew Jackson on December 6, 1830

Chapter Five CHAPTER OF THE SCHOOL OF RUSSIAN CHEMISTS

Chapter 14 The last chapter, or the Bolshevik theater The circumstances of the last month of the life of Baron Ungern are known to us exclusively from Soviet sources: interrogation protocols ("questionnaires") of the "prisoner of war Ungern", reports and reports compiled on the basis of these

Chapter Forty-One ANDROMEDA'S FOGNESS: THE RESTORED CHAPTER Adrian, the eldest of the Gorbov brothers, appears at the very beginning of the novel, in the first chapter, and is described in the final chapters. We will cite the first chapter in its entirety, since this is the only

Chapter 24. A new chapter in my biography. April 1899 came, and I began to feel very bad again. This was still affected by the results of my overwork as I wrote my book. The doctor found that I needed an extended rest and advised me

"CHAPTER OF LITERATURE, CHAPTER OF POETS" Various rumors circulated about the personality of Belinsky among Petersburg writers. A drop-out student, kicked out of the university for inability, a bitter drunkard who writes his articles without leaving a binge ... The only truth was that

Chapter VI. CHAPTER OF RUSSIAN MUSIC Now it seems to me that the history of the whole world is divided into two periods, - Pyotr Ilyich teased himself in a letter to his nephew Volodya Davydov: - the first period is everything that happened from the creation of the world to the creation of the Queen of Spades. Second

Chapter 10. Absenteeism - 1969 (The first chapter about Brodsky) The question of why we do not publish IB poems in our country is not a question about IB, but about Russian culture, about its level. The fact that it is not published is not a tragedy for him, not only for him, but also for the reader - not in the sense that he will not read it yet.

Chapter 30. COMFORT IN TEARS The last chapter, farewell, forgiving and compassionate I imagine that I will soon die: sometimes it seems to me that everyone around me is saying goodbye to me. Turgenev Let's take a good look at all this, and instead of indignation, our heart will be filled with sincere

Chapter Ten An Unexpected Chapter All my main thoughts came suddenly, unintentionally. So this one. I have read stories by Ingeborg Bachmann. And suddenly I felt that I mortally want to make this woman happy. She's already dead. I have never seen a portrait of her. The only sensual

Biography

In America, he was adopted by the Delaware tribe, who shared their lands with the former Effingham estate, and now belonged to the Temples. Bumpo lived a long life in the Great Lakes region and was renowned as a good hunter and a brave warrior. Faithfully he was served by a wonderful gun "Oleneboy" and two dogs. The hunter entered the first warpath together with his friend, the Mohican Chingachguk, with whom he did not part for almost his entire life. He fought with the Iroquois, Hurons and the French. His adventures took place on the shores of the Great Lakes, and after each he made a couple of loyal friends. He was attentive and honest, this helped him to get out of all conflicts safe and sound.

Contrary to his own expectations, he lived a very long life. After finding his master, Major Effingham, who soon passed away, and the death of the Great Serpent, he went south, away from the "clatter of axes." Although his life there was not calm, despite the fact that he turned from a hunter into a trapper. The faithful Deer Boy still served him. Deciding to help the guy who wanted to save his bride from captivity, Natty got involved in a serious struggle with the Sioux tribe and white settlers. The Pawnee Wolf tribe came to Natty's aid.

Nathaniel died in the fall of 1805, shortly after the death of his faithful dog Hector, in the Pawnee tribe, where he was revered for the greatest wisdom.

Nicknames

Create an image

A good-natured, loyal and honest hunter. He will find a common language with everyone. Wears homemade clothes made of animal skins, lives in a homemade "wigwam". Ignorant and uneducated, but his inner world is rich and huge. He's the best border shooter.

Novels

However, the above dating contradicts the texts of the novels.

In the novel Prairie, it is repeatedly indicated that Natty Bumpo is over 80 years old: "But the snows of eighty-seven winters clouded my eyes with their brilliance ...". If you believe this quote, then Natty Bumpo died at the age of 88 (one year after these events).

In the novel "St. John's Wort" it is written that fifteen years later, Bumpo and Chingachgook with their son again found themselves on the lake, where the novel takes place: “Fifteen years passed before St. Mohoke to join their allies ... They visited all the memorial sites, and Chingachgook showed his son where the original Huron camp was ... ". Consequently, the action of the novel "The Last of the Mohicans", where Uncas dies, must be at least fifteen years behind the action of the novel "St. John's Wort".

In The Pathfinder, Sergeant Dunham says, "The Pathfinder is nearly forty."

In The Pioneers, Leather Stocking says: "I have known the waters of Otsego for forty-five years." Since in the novel he is in his sixty-ninth year, and the action of the novel "St. John's wort" takes place on the same lake Otsego (and St. John's wort appears there for the first time), then at the time of the action of "St. John's wort" Natty must be 23-24 years old. However, "The Pioneers" is the first novel in the series, so Cooper was obviously forced to change the chronology further.

“The educational value of Cooper's books is beyond doubt. For almost a hundred years they have been the favorite reading of the youth of all countries, and when reading the memoirs of, for example, Russian revolutionaries, we often come across indications that Cooper's books served as a good educator for them a sense of honor, courage, and striving for action. "
Maksim Gorky

The most, perhaps, the most popular - and at least the most beloved by the author himself - the literary hero of Fenimore Cooper, the brave hunter Nathaniel Bumpo (aka St. John's Wort, Pathfinder, Hawkeye, Long Carbine and Leather Stocking) could not help but fall into the field of view of filmmakers. In total, Cooper wrote five novels about Bumpo (and the very first were “Pioneers” - the 4th part of the cycle, in which the hero appeared already in old age), according to which in 100 years - this is how much the short film “Leather Stocking” was celebrated on September 27 - about 4 dozen film adaptations were filmed. Some of them are presented below.

Owen Moore, the first to embody the image of the Leather Stocking on the screen - "Leather Stocking" (1909):

1920 version with Harry Lorraine:

And a German tape of the same year in which Bumpo played Emil Mamilok, and Chingachguk - Bela Lugosi:

Harry Carey (1932):

Randolph Scott (1936):

George Montgomery (1950):

John Hart (1957):

Luis Induni (1965):

Rolf Roemer(1967) - however, in this case, the central character was, of course, the main film Indian of Europe, Goiko Mitic:

Helmut Lang e, who starred in two film adaptations - the film "Ultimul Mohican" (1968) and the mini-series, which can be loved for just the title "Die Lederstrumpferzahlungen" (1969):

8-episode “The Last of the Mohicans” (1971) with Kenneth Ives:

And the 5-episode "Hawkeye, the Pathfinder" (1973) with Paul Massey:

The animated version, which was shown more than once on domestic TV (voice acting Mike Rode) (1975):

Steve Forrest (1978):

In 1987, two versions appeared at once - another cartoon (voice acting John Waters):

And the Soviet film adaptation, notable only for the fact that Andrei Mironov played his last role in "The Pathfinder" - and since the actor died even before the completion of work on the film, he was voiced by Alexei Neklyudov. The Pathfinder proper played Andrey Zhagars(bonuses: Mironov as the insidious French marquis and Evgeny Evstigneev as the leader of the Senecs).

1990 brought another film adaptation from a domestic producer - "St. John's Wort". The main character played Andrey Khvorov:

In 1992, the director got down to business, who, by his own admission, did not read Cooper, and in general specialized mainly in crime stories. Nevertheless, the shot hit the top ten: "Last of the mohicans" by Michael Mann is not only the best adaptation of Fenimore's novel, but also one of the best adventure films in general, in which everything is good - acting, camera work, and mesmerizing music. ... well and Daniel Day-Lewis, of course, is the best Bumpo of all possible (see also:,):

However, this film did not put an end to the story - two years later the 23-episode "Hawkeye" was shot with Lee Horsley starring:

And in 1996, the Pathfinder's rifle passed to Kevin Dillon(interestingly, Russell Means, who played Chingachgook in Michael Mann's version, is in one of the roles):

And the latest version to date is “The Last Of The Mohicans”, another animated series, this time made in Italy, which IMDb for some reason is silent about:

Musical Postscript:

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Mother, Sister

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Nathaniel (Natty) Bumpo- a literary character, the main character of a historical and adventure pentalogy en Fenimore Cooper. First appears in the novel "St. John's Wort".

Biography

In America, he was adopted by the Delaware tribe, who shared their lands with the former Effingham estate, and now belonged to the Temples. Bumpo lived a long life in the Great Lakes region and was renowned as a good hunter and a brave warrior. Faithfully he was served by a wonderful gun "Oleneboy" and two dogs. The hunter entered the first warpath together with his friend, the Mohican Chingachguk, with whom he did not part for almost his entire life. He fought with the Iroquois, Hurons and the French. His adventures took place on the shores of the Great Lakes, and after each he made a couple of loyal friends. He was attentive and honest, this helped him to get out of all conflicts safe and sound.

Contrary to his own expectations, he lived a very long life. After finding his master, Major Effingham, who soon passed away, and the death of the Great Serpent, he went south, away from the "clatter of axes." Although his life there was not calm, despite the fact that he turned from a hunter into a trapper. The faithful Deer Boy still served him. Deciding to help the guy who wanted to save his bride from captivity, Natty got involved in a serious struggle with the Sioux tribe and white settlers. The Pawnee Wolf tribe came to Natty's aid.

Nathaniel died in the fall of 1805, shortly after the death of his faithful dog Hector, in the Pawnee tribe, where he was revered for the greatest wisdom.

Nicknames

Create an image

A good-natured, loyal and honest hunter. He will find a common language with everyone. Wears homemade clothes made of animal skins, lives in a homemade "wigwam". Ignorant and uneducated, but his inner world is rich and huge. He's the best border shooter.

Novels

However, the above dating contradicts the texts of the novels.

In the novel Prairie, it is repeatedly indicated that Natty Bumpo is over 80 years old: "But the snows of eighty-seven winters clouded my eyes with their brilliance ...". If you believe this quote, then Natty Bumpo died at the age of 88 (one year after these events).

In the novel "St. John's Wort" it is written that fifteen years later, Bumpo and Chingachgook with their son again found themselves on the lake, where the novel takes place: “Fifteen years passed before St. Mohoke to join their allies ... They visited all the memorial sites, and Chingachgook showed his son where the original Huron camp was ... ". Consequently, the action of the novel "The Last of the Mohicans", where Uncas dies, must be at least fifteen years behind the action of the novel "St. John's Wort".

In The Pathfinder, Sergeant Dunham says, "The Pathfinder is nearly forty."

In The Pioneers, Leather Stocking says: "I have known the waters of Otsego for forty-five years." Since in the novel he is in his sixty-ninth year, and the action of the novel "St. John's wort" takes place on the same lake Otsego (and St. John's wort appears there for the first time), then at the time of the action of "St. John's wort" Natty must be 23-24 years old. However, "The Pioneers" is the first novel in the series, so Cooper was obviously forced to change the chronology further.

see also

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Links

• ... Retrieved February 21, 2010.
• ... Retrieved February 21, 2010.
• ... Retrieved February 21, 2010.

Excerpt from Nathaniel Bumpo