The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea is a historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in 1840. It is the fourth novel Cooper wrote featuring Natty Bumppo, his fictitious frontier hero, and the third chronological episode of the "Leatherstocking Tales". The inland sea of the title is Lake Ontario. "The Pathfinder" was written 13 years after Natty Bumppo had ended his career in "The Prairie". Cooper had questioned the wisdom of reviving this hero, and he was at the time engaged in fierce litigations with newspapers. The adventures of the plot on the
James Fenimore Cooper Linonian Society. Cooper served in the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, which greatly influenced many of his novels and other writings. The novel that launched his career was "The Spy", a tale about counter-espionage set during the American Revolutionary War and published in 1821. He also wrote numerous sea stories, and his best-known works are five historical novels of the frontier period known as the "Leatherstocking Tales". Cooper's works on the U.S. Navy have been well received among naval historians, but they were sometimes criticized by his contemporaries. Among his most famous works is the Romantic novel "The Last of