Leatherstocking Tales - Definition

The Leatherstocking Tales is a series of novels by American writer James Fenimore Cooper, each featuring the hero Natty Bumppo, otherwise known as "Leatherstocking," "Pathfinder," "Deerslayer," or "Hawkeye.".

Listed chronologically by story action, the books are:

Note that these are the dates given by Cooper in the tales themselves. They don't all correspond with the actual dates of historical events described in the series. This may have been done for convenience's sake, for instance to avoid making Leatherstocking 100 years old when he travelled the Kansas plains.

The Natty Bumppo character is generally believed to have been inspired, at least in part, by the real-life squatter David Shipman.

References

• James H. Pickering, Cooper's Otsego Heritage: The Sources of The Pioneers, 1979 (http://www.oneonta.edu/external/cooper/articles/suny/1979suny-pickering.html)
• James Fenimore Cooper, The Leatherstocking Saga, edited by Allan Nevins, Pantheon Books, 1954.