Leather‐Stocking Tales

Leather‐Stocking Tales, series of five novels by Cooper, depicting the life of the early American frontier, and deriving its title from the nickname of the hero Natty Bumppo, so called because of his long deerskin leggings. The novels in order of composition are The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Prairie (1827), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deerslayer (1841). Their sequence in relation to plot is Deerslayer, Last of the Mohicans, Pathfinder, Pioneers, Prairie. The hero is known by the following names: “Bumppo” or “Deerslayer” in Deerslayer; “Hawkeye” in Last of the Mohicans; “Pathfinder” in Pathfinder; “Natty Bumppo” or “Leather‐Stocking” in Pioneers; and “the trapper” in Prairie. His character remains strikingly consistent throughout the series, which treats his life and adventures from youth to old age and death. The perfect woodsman, who dislikes the restraints and destructiveness of settlements, he understands and loves the forest, and his moral qualities are as great as his understanding. Generous both to friends and to enemies, he possesses a simple, staunch morality, and a cool nerve and never‐failing resourcefulness.