The Last of the Mohicans

This collector-quality edition includes the complete text of James Fenimore Cooper's classic frontier action tale in a freshly edited and newly typeset edition. With a large 7.44"x9.69" page size, this Summit Classic edition is printed on hefty 60# bright white paper with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design. Page headers and proper placement of footnotes exemplify the attention to detail given this volume. Widely regarded as the masterpiece of a writing career spanning thirty years, over thirty novels and an extensive body of lesser works, "The Last of the Mohicans" was James Fenimore Cooper's sixth novel and the second in the Leatherstocking Tales saga. Set in 1757 during the Seven Years' War (The French and Indian War in America) between Britain and France, the tale recounts the exploits of Natty Bumppo, called Hawkeye in this story, and his companions Chingachgook and Uncas against the backdrop of a French siege of British-held Fort William Henry. Crossing paths with a relief column also escorting the daughters of the British garrison commander, the three companions become embroiled in a series of frontier adventures involving forest battles, captures, rescues, flights and pursuits through the wilderness. With the publication of "The Spy" in 1821, James Fenimore Cooper became an international figure and the first authentic American novelist, free of the forms and conventions of the British fiction of the day. With "The Leatherstocking Tales" he became the first great interpreter of the American experience, chronicling the adventures of the indomitable Natty Bumppo, known variously as "Hawkeye," "Deerslayer," "Pathfinder," "Leatherstocking" and other names, from the colonial Indian wars through the early expansion into the vast western plains. Published between 1823 and 1841, beginning with "The Pioneers" and ending with "The Deerslayer", the tales are set against historical events ranging from 1740 to 1804, with Cooper taking some literary license with the actual chronology of events, probably to avoid having Bumppo ranging the Great Plains at over 90 years of age. This edition of "The Last of the Mohicans" is the first in a new series of the complete Leatherstocking Tales to be released by Summit Classic Press in the coming months.