“The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna” (1823) is the earliest written (and chronologically fourth) installment in James Fenimore Cooper’s pentalogy about the courageous hunter, guide, and scout Nathaniel Bumppo, known as Leatherstocking, whose youth and mature years the author recounted in the later novels “The Deerslayer,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” and “The Pathfinder.”
1793, the shores of Otsego Lake in New York State. Seventy-year-old Nathaniel, “one of the first of those pioneers who open new lands in the country,” is living out his days in a wretched shack with the alcoholic Indian John Mohegan—formerly the noble and brave Delaware chief Chingachgook. However, civilization is rapidly encroaching on the once-pristine land, and after being accused of violating hunting regulations and resisting the authorities, and having lost his cabin to a fire and buried his old friend, Leatherstocking is ultimately forced to leave his home to the sound of settlers' axes and venture far into the West, under the canopy of the virgin forest that has been familiar to him since his youth…
Author: James Fenimore Cooper
Illustrations: Anatoly Itkin
Translation: Irina Gurova, Natalia Dekhtereva
Pages: 416 (offset). Hardcover
Dimensions: 265x210x38 mm
Series: Land of Adventure
