Favorite writer of generations of Americans, Cooper was born on 15 September 1789, and grew up on his family's huge wooded settlement, Cooperstown, New York, which his father, William Cooper, a prominent Federalist, had founded before the boy's birth. His days as a Yale student were cut short when he was expelled for misbehaviour. He gamely joined the navy, earning the rank of midshipman. In 1811 he married Susan Augusta De Lancey, settling down and writing prolifically, politically, and pro ...[Read Story]