The Leatherstocking Tales-James Fenimore Cooper

For years I avoided James Fenimore Cooper, not being interested in Colonial America or frontier adventures. Maybe it was because of all the poorly done Disney serials from the 1950s and 1960s about Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. They always seemed to be geared to boys not girls and presented such a wholesome, patriotic stereotype of the brave frontier scouts and warriors that it was enough to make you wanna gag.
Little did I know that years later, a movie based on one of Cooper's novels would take me by storm and influence the direction of the rest of my life. Michael Mann's film "The Last of the Mohicans" did what well done movies should do, entertain, educate and inspire people to revisit the classics. This is just what happened to me and a multitude of other fans who saw this movie and fell in love with this action packed drama made in the 1990s (Daniel Day Lewis' machismo had a lot to do with it too).
Last of the Mohicans is the second or third book in a series about Nathaniel Bumbo aka Hawkeye and and his adventures on the American frontier. The first book was my favorite, entitled The Deerslayer and is about a young Hawkeye and his relationship with a ship's captain and his daughter who live on a large raft in the middle of Lake Glimerglass in Upstate New York. It is filled with action and some graphic violence and even a bit of romance.

Like every other book written in the early 19th Century, The Leatherstocking Tales are not easy reads and frequently you will see gargantuan differences between the movie screenplays and the books, but if you enjoy the action and adventure of a frontier setting, these are the novels for you. The Leatherstocking Tales are wonderful bits of Americana and fascinating chronicles of life on the Appalachian frontier.