But even after the lapse of half a century, it can hardly be said that Americans are prepared to do full justice to Cooper. His great romances are frequently spoken of as if they were. in the main, fit reading for boys only. His undoubted defects. such as his careless style, his exploita tion of his prejudices, his stilted conversations, his inability, as a rule, to draw women who were not distressingly prim, the fact that he wrote entirely too many novels, and that not a few of his men are as wooden as his women—these grave Inuits have peen put forward, while his greater merits have been kept in the background. For, when at his best, as in nearly all the romances named above, Cooper was a very great novelist. Ile had the narrative faculty of carrying his read ers along, however much they might grumble at. this detail or that, In "Leatherstocking" he added a character to the small gallery of the world's fictitious personages—something no other American has ever done, except Mrs. Stowe—and in Ramey Birch, Long Ton) Cain, and other sailors. as well as in Uncas, Chingachgook, and other Indians, he created characters of undying power. His Indians, at whom it was oncethefash ion to sneer, as the creations of a romantic fancy, are now said by ethnologists to be far from overdrawn portraitures. He was, as we have seen, practically the first writer to extend the domain of fiction over the sea, the primeval forest, and the prairie. If he was in a way a follower of a still greater romancer. Scott, he won the enthusi astic commendation of another great writer of fiction, Balzac, and he has the unique credit of having written a prose epic of the planting of his native country, which is as spacious and free as the virgin woods and lakes amid which its scenes are laid. In other words, Cooper is a
large genius. who ranks well with his fellow romancers. It is almost absurd to judge one of Cooper's rapidly written romances by the canons one might legitimately apply to a short story by Daudet or Maupassant. When the man is judged in the large by the effects of his best works, and when he is compared with his rivals like Simms and Bird, and with his predecessor, P,roekdeu Brown, his full genius and the service he did American literature emerge splendidly. For carrying power his work has probably had no equal in America : with fewer crying faults he. would in all likelihood have been our greatest author.
A full bibliography of Cooper is not needed here, but to the works already flatted may be added: The Wept of Wish-ton-lVish (1829) ; The Hcidenma UCT (1332) ; The Headsman 0833) ; Sketches of Swit:erland (1835) ; • The merican Democrat (1838) ; The Chronicles of Coopers town (1838) ; Homeward Bound (I S38) ; .11c,- ccdcs of Castile (1840) ; Wyandotte (1843) ; Ned Myers (1843) ; .clfloat and Ashore (1844) ; The Crater (1847) : dark Tier (184S); Oak Openings (184S) ; The Sea-Lions (1849) ; and The Ways of the flour (1850) ; Lounsbury's Life, already mentioned, contains a good bibliog raphy and the best criticism that has yet been devoted to Cooper. Consult, also: Clymer, .Tames Fenimore Cooper ( 1901 ) : Richardson, Laterature, vol. ii. (New York, 1887-88) ; Wen dell, A Literary History of America (New York, 1900) ; and essays by Mark Twain, T. W. Dig ginson. and Brander Matthews.