The Pioneers

The first of Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, The Pioneers introduces Natty Bumppo, one of literature’s most unforgettable heroes. Bumppo appears here as an aged hunter living near the frontier town of Templeton (Cooperstown), New York, in the early days of the young republic. An outsider on the advancing edge of civilization, Bumppo is enmeshed in a contest for the land and its riches among pioneers, the Indians they displace, and the settlers who come in their wake. An introduction by historian Alan Taylor explores the real historical backdrop against which Cooper’s imagination flourished.