James Fenimore Cooper was inspired by a tale related to him by neighbor and family friend John Jay. It was more successful and became a bestseller; the setting of this Revolutionary War tale is widely believed to have been John Jay's family home "The Locusts" in Rye, New York. In 1823, Cooper published "The Pioneers", the first of the "Leatherstocking" series. The series features Natty Bumppo, a resourceful American woodsman at home with the Delaware Indians and their chief Chingachgook. Bumppo was also the main character of Cooper's most famous novel "The Last of the Mohicans" (1826), written in New York City where
The Red Rover did note, the "Indistinctness" which happens at the closing of scenes, but left that as his only criticism. Modern reviewer Susan Manning, notes that "Red Rover", despite being perhaps one of the most successful novels by Cooper for the contemporary 19th century literary circles, is very dry to read for modern readers, "confusing and obscure in places, banal in others; a full quarter of this long narrative elapses, slowly, before anything emerges which could properly be called a story." The Red Rover The Red Rover is a novel by American writer James Fenimore Cooper. It was originally published in Paris