Cooper's "Deerslayer": View of the Native Americans James Fenimore Cooper was born on September 15, 1789 in Burlington, New Jersey. He was the son of William and Elizabeth (Fenimore) Cooper, the twelfth of thirteen children (Long, p. 9). Cooper is known as one of the first great American novelists, in many ways because he was the first American writer to gain international followers of his writing. In addition, he was perhaps the first novelist to "demonstrate...that native materials could inspire significant imaginative writing" (p. 13). In addition his writin