Good bibliographies in Lounsbury's Life (see below), and Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. I, pp. 532-534. =Biography and Criticism= There is no official biography, Cooper having opposed such a publication. The best single volume is by T. R. Lounsbury (_A.M.L. Series_). BROWNELL, W. C. Cooper. _Scribner's Magazine_, April, 1906. Also in _American Prose Masters_. 1909. BRYANT, W. C. A Discourse on the Life and Genius of James Fenimore Cooper. 1852. CLEMENS, S. L. (Mark Twain). Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses. _North American Review_, July, 1895. Also in _How to tell a Story and Other Essays_. 1897. ERSKINE, JOHN. Leading American Novelists. 1910. HILLARD, G. S. Fenimore Cooper. _Atlantic Monthly_, January, 1862. HOWE, M. A. DEW. James Fenimore Cooper. _The Bookman_, March, 1897. Also in _American Bookmen_. 1898. HOWELLS, W. D. Heroines of Fiction. 1901. MATTHEWS, B. Fenimore Cooper. _Atlantic Monthly_, September, 1907. Also in _Gateways to Literature_. 1912. PHILLIPS, MARY E. James Fenimore Cooper. 1913. SIMMS, W. C. The Writings of J. Fenimore Cooper. _Views and Reviews._ 1845. _Ser. 1._ STEDMAN, E. C. Poe, Cooper, and the Hall of Fame. _North American Review_, August, 1907. TUCKERMAN, H. T. James Fenimore Cooper. _North American Review_, October, 1859. VAN DOREN, CARL. Cambridge History of American Literature. Vol. I, Bk. II, in chap. vi. VINCENT, L. H. American Literary Masters. 1906. WILSON, J. G. Cooper Memorials and Memories. _The Independent_, January 31, 1901. TOPICS AND PROBLEMS Read Brownell's defense of Cooper's Indian characters in his "Masters of American Prose" and check his statements by your own observations in a selected novel. Read the comments of Brownell in "American Prose Masters," and of Lounsbury in the _A. M. L. Series_, on Cooper's women, and then arrive at your own conclusions from the reading of a selected novel. If you have read two or three of Cooper's novels, see if he has introduced his usual polished gentleman and his bore or pedant in each, and see how nearly these characters correspond in themselves and in their story value. Make a study of the actual plot and its development in any selected novel of Cooper's. Read Mark Twain's essay on "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" and decide on how far it is fair and how far it was dictated by Mark Twain's hostility to romantic fiction. Read Cooper's prefaces to a half-dozen or more novels for the light they will throw on his belligerency of temper.