For the Jamaican band, see The Pioneers (band)

The Pioneers: The Sources of the Susquehanna; a Descriptive Tale is a historical novel, the first published of the Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five novels by American writer James Fenimore Cooper. While The Pioneers was published in 1823, before any of the other Leatherstocking Tales, the period it covers makes it the fourth chronologically.

Plot summary

The story takes place on the rapidly advancing frontier of New York State and features an elderly Leatherstocking (Natty Bumppo), Judge Marmaduke Temple of Templeton, whose life parallels that of the author's father Judge William Cooper, and Elizabeth Temple (based on the author's sister, Susan Cooper), of the fictional Templeton, New York. The story begins with an argument between the Judge and Leatherstocking over who killed a buck, and as Cooper reviews many of the changes to New York's Lake Otsego, questions of environmental stewardship, conservation, and use prevail. Leatherstocking and his closest friend, the Mohican Indian Chingachgook, begin to compete with the Temples for the loyalties of a mysterious young visitor, a "young hunter" known as Oliver Edwards, who eventually marries Elizabeth. Chingachgook dies, exemplifying the vexed figure of the "dying Indian", and Natty vanishes into the sunset.

Analysis

The Pioneers was the first written of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking series, featuring the character Natty Bumppo, a resourceful white American living in the woods. The story focuses on the evolution of the wilderness into a civilized community. The story takes place in the town of Templeton, which is said to be modeled after Cooperstown, New York.

The story also has an underlying ecological theme, and is considered one of the first ecological novels. One of Cooper’s characters, Judge Temple, highlights this theme when he talks about how people will use up the very resources they depend on by destroying the forests, pigeons, and fish.

The death of Chingachgook seems to be a symbol of the disappearance of the Indian population in the face of white settlement.

British novelist and critic D.H. Lawrence said the novel presented “the myth of America”.

Characters

• Nathaniel "Natty" Bumppo, aka the Leather-stocking, aka. Hawk-eye - Our hero, an old hunter and patriot. He is a friend to the Indians and distrustful of civilization. (chapter 1, page 22). He was "a melodious synopsis of man and nature in the West".

• Judge Marmaduke Temple - A widower and the founder of Templeton (chapter 1, page 18)

• Agamemnon "Aggy" - A slave of the Judge

• Elizabeth "Bess" Temple - Daughter of the Judge and romantic interest of Oliver (chapter 5, page 66)

• Richard "Dick" Jones - The cousin of the Judge (chapter 4, page 47)

• Squire Hiram Doolittle - An architect, justice of the peace, and buddy of Dick Jones

• Monsieur Le Quoi - A former French nobleman and now shopkeeper in Templeton (chapter 4, page 47)

• Major Frederick "Fritz" Hartmann - A German settler in the area and regular visitor to the Judge's house (chapter 4, page 48)

• The Reverend Mr. Grant - An Anglican minister (chapter 4, page 48)

• Ben Pump, aka Benjamin Penguillan - A servant to the Judge, and a former sea man who doesn't know how to swim (chapter 5, page 60)

• Remarkable Pettibone - Housekeeper to the Judge (chapter 5, page 62)

• Old Brave - The Temples' faithful dog.

• Dr. Elnathan Todd - The town doctor (chapter 6, page 71)

• Indian John, aka John Mohegan, aka Chingachgook - The last of the Mohicans and Natty's faithful companion (chapter 7, page 85)

• Oliver Edwards, aka Young Eagle - The young hunter and friend to Natty and Indian John (chapter 3, page 38)

• Captain and Mrs. Hollinger - Owners of the inn The Bold Dragoon

• Squire Chester Lippet - The obnoxious lawyer who talks too much when visiting the Bold Dragoon

• Louisa Grant - The daughter of Mr. Grant, companion to Elizabeth, and the other possible love interest for Oliver

• Billy Kirby - A lumberjack and crack-shot with a rifle (chapter 17, page 190)

• Squire Van der School - The "honest" lawyer of Judge Marmaduke (chapter 25, page 277)

• Jotham Riddle - A lazy fellow who is made a magistrate by Sheriff Jones

• Sir Oliver Effingham

Publication history

The first of Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, The Pioneers was published in 1823. 3,500 copies sold before noon on the day it was published.^[1]

References

Further reading

• Wayne Franklin. The New World of James Fenimore Cooper. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.
• Thomas Hallock. From the Fallen Tree: Frontier Narratives, Environmental Politics, and the Roots of a National Pastoral. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
• H. Daniel Peck. A World by Itself: The Pastoral Moment in Cooper's Fiction. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977.
• Thomas Philbrick. Cooper's Pioneers: Origins and Structure. PMLA 79 (December 1964): 579-93
• Donald A. Ringe. "Introduction." The Pioneers. New York: Penguin, 1988.
• Alan Taylor. William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic. New York: Vintage, 1996.

External links

• The Pioneers at Project Gutenberg
• The Pioneers on Open Library at the Internet Archive
• "Cooper's Otsego Heritage: The Sources of The Pioneers, from a talk by James H. Pickering, 1979