The Last of the Mohicans

　　This novel remains the most popular of Cooper's 'Leatherstocking Tales', a classic story of the French and Indian War. The battles and exciting pursuits, which constitute the book's plot, are rounded out by interesting Indian lore and descriptions of the wilderness. --Masterpieces of World Literature
　　The beauty of the unspoiled wilderness and sorrow at its disappearance, symbolized in Hawkeye's Mohican Indian friend, the last of their tribe, are important themes of the novel. --Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature
　　[Cooper's] worldwide fame attests his power of invention, for his novels have been popular principally for their variety of dramatic incidents. . . but. . . [there has been] a revival of interest in their creation of tension between different kinds of society. . . between civil law and natural rights as these suggest issues of moral and mythic import. --The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature

　　JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (1789-1851), the first major American novelist, was the son of a wealthy landowner who founded Cooperstown, New York. He attended Yale and served in the navy before turning to writing, winning international fame withThe Spy (1821). After The Pioneers (1823), public fascination with the character of Natty Bumppo led him to write a series of sequels that gradually unfold the entire life of the frontier scout. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.