In 1786 William Cooper, determined to become a self-made gentleman of substance in post-revolutionary America, founded Cooperstown, N.Y., through a dodgy land deal. His town rose to become county seat, and Cooper became a judge and then a congressman. He lost most of the prestige he earned later, when he overstretched himself, and his local patronage weakened when he backed the Federalists against the victorious Republicans. Nonetheless, his son, James Fenimore Cooper, the early 19th century's best-selling novelist, wrote essentially a justification of his father in his third novel, The Pioneers (1823). Taylor's book--a combination of biography, personal history, social history, literary exegesis and analysis of father-son dynamics--charts the interplay between the fact and the fiction of the days when upstate New York was the frontier. William Cooper's Town won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for history.


From Publishers Weekly
Taylor's account of politician William Cooper and his son, the novelist James Fenimore Cooper, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Wheelright William Cooper became a land speculator in frontier New York following the American Revolution. Taking advantage of postwar opportunities, he bought the Otsego Patent and founded Cooperstown, New York. Using his social and political connections, he became a judge and then a U.S. congressman. One of his sons, the famous novelist James Fenimore Cooper, wrote The Pioneers, a fictionalized account of early Cooperstown. Taylor (history, Univ. of California) traces Cooper's life and the development of Cooperstown in exhaustive detail, drawing parallels with The Pioneers. He provides a thoroughly researched account of the early village. However, his constant attempt to cram every relevant fact into his text leads to lengthy sentences that dampen reader interest. Only the most persevering reader will make it through this one. For large academic libraries specializing in postrevolutionary American history.?Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., MetamoraCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New Yorker
"Marvelous....Taylor's intellectual grasp never fails."


New York Times Book Review, Pauline Maier
A story stranger than fiction . . . an unidealized, unconventional view of post-revolutionary America from a vantage point on the frontier. . . . The book's strongest attraction . . . lies in its stunning collection of early American characters.


From Booklist
A tall, stout wheelwright with bright eyes, boisterous charm, and a love of banter, wrestling, and horse racing turned himself into a wealthy land developer, judge, and U.S. congressman in post^-Revolutionary War America. His life would make a great novel, and it did. William Cooper's founding of Cooperstown, New York, was later echoed in the historical fiction of his son, James Fenimore Cooper. Alan Taylor has produced a meticulously researched, stylishly accomplished account of the elder Cooper's life through a hearty combination of biography, social history, and literary exegesis. Taylor reveals Cooper's rise from a rude bumpkin to a powerful pseudoelitist and then follows his evolution into the meddlesome landlord he had warned himself against. Ironically, he became as distant from his settlers as from the family he had hoped would develop the erudition, style, and social acceptance that eluded him. His enduring legacy was a son who turned his lack of commercial power into a literary power that made him the early nineteenth century's best-selling author. This is informative, enlightening, entertaining history. Patricia Hassler


Review
"Marvelous....Taylor's intellectual grasp never fails."--The New Yorker


Review
"Marvelous....Taylor's intellectual grasp never fails."--The New Yorker


Book Description
An innovative work of biography, social history, and literary analysis, this Pulitzer Prize-winning book presents the story of two men, William Cooper and his son, the novelist James Fennimore Cooper, who embodied the contradictions that divided America in the early years of the Republic. Taylor shows how Americans resolved their revolution through the creation of new social forms and new stories that evolved with the expansion of our frontier. of photos.


From the Publisher
"Marvelous....Taylor's intellectual grasp never fails."--The New Yorker


From the Inside Flap
An innovative work of biography, social history, and literary analysis, this Pulitzer Prize-winning book presents the story of two men, William Cooper and his son, the novelist James Fennimore Cooper, who embodied the contradictions that divided America in the early years of the Republic. Taylor shows how Americans resolved their revolution through the creation of new social forms and new stories that evolved with the expansion of our frontier. of photos.

ANNOTATION

Combining biography, social history, and literary analysis, Taylor tells the story of William Cooper, a quintessential self-made man in the aftermath of the American Revolution. A shrewd land speculator and successful developer, Cooper became the dominant landlord, presiding judge, and U.S. congressman from central New York. Illustrations. Maps.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this story of a frontier village in the early American Republic, Alan Taylor explores the lives of Judge William Cooper and the novelist James Fenimore Cooper - father and son. As frontier speculator, landlord, and politician, the father played a leading role in the conquest, resettlement, and environmental transformation of the early nation. Drawing upon his childhood memories of the New York frontier, the son created the historical fictions that made him the most popular, influential, and controversial American novelist of the early nineteenth century. Taylor makes it clear that in a rapidly changing nation William Cooper's development of Cooperstown and his son's creation of the village of Templeton in The Pioneers were different stages of a common effort, over two generations, to create, sustain, and justify a wealthy and powerful estate. Both sought that unity of social, economic, political, and cultural authority idealized in colonial America but at odds with the legacy of the American Revolution. William Cooper's Town combines biography, social history, and literary analysis. By breaching the barriers that separate political, social, and literary history, Taylor reveals the interplay of frontier settlement and narrative-making in the early American Republic. He examines how Americans resolved their revolution through the creation of new property, new power, and new stories along their extensive frontier.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Taylor's account of politician William Cooper and his son, the novelist James Fenimore Cooper, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. (Sept.)

Library Journal