James Fenimore Cooper - Boston, MA - Dead Poets' Society Memorials on Waymarking.com

The white marble bust of James Fenimore Cooper by American sculptor Horatio Greenough depicts the head and neck of the author set on a circular marble plinth. He is looking straight ahead.

A sign on the wall next to the bust is inscribed:

James Fenimore Cooper was born on September 15, 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey. His family moved to what became Cooperstown, NY when he was one year old and he lived there the remainder of his life. He inherited wealth and married Susan Augusta De Lancey. He was looking for a way to occupy himself when his wife challenged him to write a book. The result was The Spy: A Tale of Neutral Ground published in 1821.

In 1923 he wrote The Pioneers which evolved into his most famous work, a five book series with the main character being Natty Bumppo, called The Leatherstocking Tales. which included The American Democrat (1838), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Pathfinder (1840), and The Deerslayer (1841). He then turn his efforts to to naval history and wrote The History of the Navy of the United States of America (1839), The Cruise of Sommers (1844), and The Distinguished American Naval Officers (1846) which contained the biographies of Commodores William Bainbridge, Richard Somers, John Shaw, William Shubrick and Edward Preble.

James Fenimore Cooper died on September 14, 1851 and is buried in the graveyard of Christ Church in Cooperstown. In 2013, Cooper was inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame.