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
Wyandotté (novel) Wyandotté (novel) Wyandotté is a historical novel published by James Fenimore Cooper in 1843. The novel is set in New York state during the American Revolution. The main character of the novel is an Indian, "Saucy Nick", also called Wyandotté ("Great Chief"), whose depictions violate stereotypes of Native Americans. Critic James H. Pickering described the novel as rejecting the more established histories of the New York/Canada border war during the Revolution. In part the novel represents Cooper's own knowledge of the regional oral history and affiliation with soldiers who had experienced the war. In his 1968 review of the novel,