Susan Cooper

April 17, 1813 (age 80)

Scarsdale, New York, United States

Cooper was for nearly half her life very closely associated with her father, accompanying him on his travels, and acting as his amanuensis for all his later books. During the last years of his life she kept a journal (1848 - 1850), extracts from which formed her most important work, Rural Hours (1850). There is little of biographical interest in these notes. Their popularity rested on the freshness and pleasantness of her observations of signs and seasons. There is a natural grace and sincerity in her records of melting snow, bluejays and woodpeckers, old Dutch superstitions, housecleaning, and “fresh lettuce from the hot-beds. ” An observation of haymaking leads her to reflections on the position of women in America. She is chronicler of the county fair, and of the disappearing Indian. In the four years between its publication and that of Thorcau’s Walden (1854) her book ran through six editions, and new editions appeared in 1868 and 1887. Her later volumes of nature notes, Rhyme and Reason of Country Life (1854), and Rural Rambles (1854), seem to have had only single editions. The superiority of Rural Hours may be ascribed to its birth from the last years of association with her father, for, she tells us, “In his own garden he took very great pleasure, passing hours at a time there during the summer months. . It was his great delight to watch the growth of the different plants, day by day. His hot beds were always among the earliest in the village”. The author of Rural Hours was invited to edit the American edition of Country Rambles, by the well-known English naturalist, John Leonard Knapp. This volume, with her notes, appeared in 1853. She published Mount Vernon, a Letter to the Children of America in 1859, and two years later prepared Pages and Pictures From the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper (1861). She also wrote prefaces for the Household Edition of her father’s works (1876 - 1884). A study of her comments and interpretations reveals the intensity of her daughterly devotion. In her old age she published William West Skiles, a Sketch of Missionary Life in Valle Cruets in Western North Carolina, 1842-1862 (1890). Meanwhile she had devoted herself to numerous charitable works, the most important of which was the Orphan House of the Holy Savior which she founded in 1873 in Cooperstown. It has been stated that the organization of the Girls’ Friendly Society in America grew out of and was suggested hy Miss Cooper’s work in the Orphan House of the Holy Savior, but the official publications of the Girls’ Friendly Society ascribe its origin in this country to other causes.

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Works

book

Rural Hours

Works of Susan Fenimore Cooper

(4 works of Susan Fenimore Cooper American writer and amat...)

The Lumley Autograph

Country rambles in England; or, journal of a naturalist;

(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

Essays on Nature and Landscape

( Susan Fenimore Cooper (1813-1894), though often oversha...)

Female Suffrage: A Letter to the Christian Women of America

Missionary Life at Valle Crucis: Memoir of William West Skiles

Elinor Wyllys; Or, The Young Folk of Longbridge: A Tale. Volume 2

(HardPress Classic Books Series)

The Rhyme and Reason of Country Life

(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

The pilot; a tale of the sea - Primary Source Edition

(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Susan Fenimore Cooper Edit Profile

philanthropist writer

Background

Susan Fenimore Cooper was born on April 17, 1813 in Scarsdale, New York, United States. She was the child of James Fenimore and Susan (De Lancey) Cooper.

Education

Susan received an excellent education. She attended a boarding school in France and was privately tutored during the two years the family spent in Italy.

Career

Cooper was for nearly half her life very closely associated with her father, accompanying him on his travels, and acting as his amanuensis for all his later books. During the last years of his life she kept a journal (1848 - 1850), extracts from which formed her most important work, Rural Hours (1850). There is little of biographical interest in these notes. Their popularity rested on the freshness and pleasantness of her observations of signs and seasons. There is a natural grace and sincerity in her records of melting snow, bluejays and woodpeckers, old Dutch superstitions, housecleaning, and “fresh lettuce from the hot-beds. ” An observation of haymaking leads her to reflections on the position of women in America. She is chronicler of the county fair, and of the disappearing Indian. In the four years between its publication and that of Thorcau’s Walden (1854) her book ran through six editions, and new editions appeared in 1868 and 1887.

Her later volumes of nature notes, Rhyme and Reason of Country Life (1854), and Rural Rambles (1854), seem to have had only single editions. The superiority of Rural Hours may be ascribed to its birth from the last years of association with her father, for, she tells us, “In his own garden he took very great pleasure, passing hours at a time there during the summer months. . It was his great delight to watch the growth of the different plants, day by day. His hot beds were always among the earliest in the village”.

The author of Rural Hours was invited to edit the American edition of Country Rambles, by the well-known English naturalist, John Leonard Knapp. This volume, with her notes, appeared in 1853. She published Mount Vernon, a Letter to the Children of America in 1859, and two years later prepared Pages and Pictures From the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper (1861). She also wrote prefaces for the Household Edition of her father’s works (1876 - 1884). A study of her comments and interpretations reveals the intensity of her daughterly devotion. In her old age she published William West Skiles, a Sketch of Missionary Life in Valle Cruets in Western North Carolina, 1842-1862 (1890).

Meanwhile she had devoted herself to numerous charitable works, the most important of which was the Orphan House of the Holy Savior which she founded in 1873 in Cooperstown. It has been stated that the organization of the Girls’ Friendly Society in America grew out of and was suggested hy Miss Cooper’s work in the Orphan House of the Holy Savior, but the official publications of the Girls’ Friendly Society ascribe its origin in this country to other causes.

Achievements

Cooper became famous as an author of the book “Rural Hours”, for its description of nature and the environment near her hometown of Cooperstown, New York. She also wrote few biographical pieces, a novel, and journal articles on a variety of subjects. She was recognized for her contribution to the founding Orphan House of the Holy Savior. This institution, beginning with five inmates, in ten years, grew under her personal superintendence to a large institution with buildings for the housing and education of nearly one hundred boys and girls.