Trivia / The Leatherstocking Tales

• What Could Have Been: Cooper for a time planned to write a Leatherstocking novel set during the American Revolution, which would have made it six in all. The Massachusetts-based novel Lionel Lincoln was the first of the intended series Legends of the Thirteen Republics, which would have reflected the role of each of the original colonies in the American Revolution. Lionel Lincoln's poor critical and commercial reception prevented the other twelve from ever being written.
• Write What You Know: Most of Cooper's novels are set in America, on sea, or both. The Spy is set in Westchester County, where he lived for a time. With the exception of The Prairie, the Leatherstocking Tales are set in places where he had actually been, notably Lake Otsego and other parts of New York. Templeton in The Pioneers is a satirically sharpened expy for Cooperstown (where Cooper grew up and later settled down), and its founder Marmaduke Temple is partly based on the author's father. In The Deerslayer Cooper is effectively describing his backyard, which makes Mark Twain's uninformed critique of the Cooper's descriptions (Twain apparently never even visited the place) unintentionally funny.