Average customer rating:
- The Pioneers
- volume 2 is 5 stars!
- THE WORLD OF ADVENTURE
- Rediscovered treasure
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James Fenimore Cooper : The Leatherstocking Tales I: The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie (Library of America)
James Fenimore Cooper
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Cooper, James Fenimore
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Cooper, James Fenimore
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ASIN: 0940450208 |
Customer Reviews:
The Pioneers.......2003-03-20
In The Pioneers (1823) James Fenimore Cooper, who created the forerunner of backwoods heroes, depicts the clash between individualistic and communal impulses of people in the early development of a frontier settlement in upstate New York. The founder of the settlement, Judge Temple, is the personification of a bourgeois planned and stable society. He believes that laws imposed on individuals separate people from savages and are prerequisites for a civilized society. By trying to educate his settlers in practical approaches to farming and building and conservation of natural resources for practical use, he wishes to establish social and economic relations which are essential for a firmly structured society. Richard Jones, business assistant to Judge Temple and, later, the Sheriff of the county, is an egotistical jack-of-all-trades and represents a spirit of restless competition by which one pursues riches in order to climb the ladder of success. In contrast, the old hunter, Natty Bumppo, the solitary individual who lives in harmony with nature, is a frontier individualist who has a vision of a frontier society coexisting with nature. He craves traditional attitudes while fearing and despising civilization and its wasteful ways. His individualism is considered as a threat to Templeton and his natural laws eventually bring him into conflict with the "civilized" Judge and the people who are destroying the wilderness, a conflict that ultimately makes him escape the encroaching civilization and the lawless settlers.
volume 2 is 5 stars!.......2002-11-06
I give this 3 stars, because LotM is included here, but the other 2 novels are slow, tedious and well, I've never finished them. Volume 2 of these nice volumes includes The Deerslayer and the Pathfinder, two exciting novels that I recommend, perhaps even before LotM. My favorite is the Pathfinder. Natty Bumpo is awesome in that adventure!
THE WORLD OF ADVENTURE.......2002-09-17
I strongly believe that James Fenimore Cooper belongs to the American and the world history. I learned the history reading his books. I have all of them and I still open them once in a while even now, forty years later.
Rediscovered treasure.......1999-07-05
Cooper's works are wonderful blends of action and character development, evoking every emotion from the reader. "Last of the Mohicans" may be his best known novel in the Leatherstocking series (story line order: Deerslayer, Last of Mohicans, Pathfinder, Pioneer, and Prairie), but all five are really great frontier adventures for the outdoor woods lovers.
Book Description
The Flint Hills are my home country, the land that nurtured my life and nourished my soul. My roots here are as deep as those of bluestem grass in black-soil bottomland. . . . I was reared among cattle and horses, ranchers and cowboys, pasture work and rodeos, and that is the Hills that I know and these are the stories I've heard.--Jim Hoy, from the Introduction
The Flint Hills are America's last tallgrass prairie, a green enclave set in the midst of the farmland of eastern Kansas. Known as the home of the Big Beef Steer, these rugged hills have produced exemplary cowboys-both the ranch and rodeo varieties-whose hard work has given them plenty of material for equally good stories.
Jim Hoy grew up in the Flint Hills on a ranch at Cassoday that's been in his family for five generations and boasts roots "as deep as those of bluestem grass in black-soil bottomland." He now draws on this area's rich cowboy lore-as well as on his own experience working cattle, breaking horses, and rodeoing-to write a folk history of the Flint Hills spanning a century and a half.
Hoy blends history, folklore, and memoir to conjure for readers the tallgrass prairies of his boyhood in a book that richly recalls the ranching life and the people who lived it. Here are cowboys and outlaws, rodeo stars and runaway horses, ordinary folks and the stuff of legends. Hoy introduces readers to the likes of Lou Hart, a top hand with the Crocker Brothers from 1906 to1910, whose poetic paean to ranch life circulated orally for fifty years before seeing print. And he tracks down the legend of Bud Gillette, considered by his neighbors the world's fastest man until he fell in with an unscrupulous promoter. He even unravels the mystery of a lone grave supposed to be that of the first cowboy in the Flint Hills.
Hoy also explains why a good horse makes up for having to work with exasperating cattle-and why not all horses are created (or trained) equal. And he traces Flint Hills cattle culture from the days of the trail drive through the railroad years to today's trucking era, with most railroad stockyards torn down and only one section house left standing.
Writes Hoy, "I feed on the stories of the Hills and the characters who tell them as the cattle feed on the grasses." His love of the land shines throughout a book so real that readers will swear they hear the click of horseshoes on flint rock with every turn of the page.
Customer Reviews:
Truly Authentic Writing.......2007-07-09
Flint Hills Cowboys by James F. Hoy places you on the saddle of a horse loping through the historic Flint Hills of Kansas. Mr. Hoy himself grew up in the Hills and was raised working cattle alongside some of the best cowboys the region has reared. Chock-full of authentic and personal stories, the reader continually feels like one of the cowboys living the exciting, and difficult, life of a Flint Hills Cowboy.
The book both informs and delights. Mr. Hoy lacks pretentiousness and his writing is accessible. After completing the book, it was obvious to me that he desires only one thing: to share his love and passion for the Flint Hills of Kansas and all the colorful and honorable people who dwell there.
A superbly presented compendium of action, humor, lore, and history.......2006-06-05
Flint Hills Cowboys: Tales Of The Tallgrass Prairie by Jim Hoy (Professor of English and Director of the Center for Great Plains Studies at Emporia State University) is the engaging combination of personal memories, frontier history, and folklore tales about the prairie lands of the Flint Hills country of eastern Kansas. A remarkable and inherently fascinating anthology of stories and anecdotes of the rodeo, ranching, ranch hands, and working with stubborn cattle and contrary horses, Flint Hills Cowboys reflects upon a half-century of life and times in the Flint Hills. As a superbly presented compendium of action, humor, lore, and history, Jim Hoy's Flint Hills Cowboys is very strongly recommended and entertaining reading for all anyone with an interest in the landscape, people and history of the Flint Hills country.
Book Description
This collection of powerful stories reveals the complex and wondrous world of the Blackfoot nation in the nineteenth century. The thirty tales transcribed by George Bird Grinnell provide an intimate look into Blackfoot culture and philosophy and remind us of tribal values to be upheld and taught. Classic tales of adventure speak of deeds accomplished, and cultural heroes roam across an arresting Native landscape of legend and history. Ancient stories, captured in oral tradition, cast the shadow of the Blackfoot people far into the past and provide foundation and meaning for their lives in the present. The final section of this book is an insightful overview of the history and culture of the Blackfoot Nation. First published in 1892, Blackfoot Lodge Tales is based on George Bird Grinnell’s personal interactions with the Blackfoot people.
A member of the Blackfeet Tribe and a historian, Thedis Berthelson Crowe provides an indigenous perspective of the Blackfoot Lodge Tales in her new introduction to this edition. Her great-great grandfather, William Russell, served as the Blackfoot interpreter for Grinnell.
Download Description
As they were following up the river, they saw at a distance three old bulls lying down close to a cut bank. Heavy Collar left his party, and went out to kill one of these bulls, and when he had come close to them, he shot one and killed it right there. He cut it up, and, as he was hungry, he went down into a ravine below him, to roast a piece of meat; for he had left his party a long way behind, and night was now coming on. As he was roasting the meat, he thought,--for he was very tired,--"It is a pity I did not bring one of my young men with me. He could go up on that hill and get some hair from that bull's head, and I could wipe out my gun."
Book Description
Set in the immense landscape of the Great Plains, The Prairie (1827) addresses many questions raised by the penetration of the American west: the displacement of the Indians, the destruction of nature, and the creation of a just society both ordered and free. Natty Bumppo, a man now in the
autumn of his days, is the spokesman for the conservation of the natural environment. But as his physical prowess wanes he is ultimately unable to thwart the despoilers. In this, the last in the series of five Leatherstocking Tales, Cooper resolves the issues of The Pioneers and The Last of the
Mohicans, but at the same time eloquently suggests that humility, self-control, reverence for God, and respect for nature are tragically lost on the prairie.
Customer Reviews:
The vast, idealistic prairie of Cooper's imagination.......2007-03-01
"The Prairie" piles a far-fetched mystery atop an implausible plotline, but there's something endearing about its sheer disregard for authenticity. The ultimate success of this installment of Cooper's Leatherstocking series is not in its realism--which is in short supply here--but in its comedy (often calculated but sometimes unintentional) and its social commentary.
Natty Bumppo appears again simply as "the trapper"; it's near the end of his life, and he has escaped his former residence in the Hudson Valley for the peace of the empty prairie. His tranquility is shattered by the arrival of an outlaw family of squatters, pursued by a young man--a bee hunter, no less--inexplicably and secretly following them. In quick order, the mysteries collect: a strange and beautiful young woman emerges at the edge of the family's outpost, a member of the family is murdered, and the stalker's interest in the family is not entirely clear.
There's an additional hanger-on, Obed Batt, M.D., whose character, it must be said, straddles the wrong side of the thin line between humor and silliness, between clever and cliche. Meant as a satirical portrait (think "absent-minded professor"), Batt is a "man of science" who is a bit of a bumbling fool and who, in an ongoing gag, mistakes his own beloved donkey for a wild and hitherto undiscovered beast. He intrudes the novel much like David Gamut, the equally exasperating psalmist in "The Last of the Mohicans."
Underneath the sarcasm and the satire and the silliness is Cooper's entire catalog of romantic idealism--the themes and lessons found in Cooper's other works. Natty is still the pioneering and rugged individualist escaping the encroachments of civilization; many of Natty's soliloquized sermons are conservationist pleas for the wise use of America's natural resources; and the Indians Copper idealized in the Northeast have been transplanted to the West. (The author's knowledge of the Great Plains was based on second-hand accounts and redrawn in the fields of his imagination.)
In spite of its fragile plot, facile characters, and (ultimately) futile homilies, "The Prairie" is rarely boring. But be warned: when the secrets are revealed, nine out of ten readers will react with a hearty "Oh, please!" (The tenth will have given up caring). But Cooper ultimately compensates the patient reader with one of the most poignant denouements in American literature.
Anonymous Natty.......2003-12-27
James Fenimore Cooper's 1827 novel "The Prairie" is an epic adventure featuring two major plots, twelve major characters, and a cast of thousands. Set in the Great Plains shortly after the Louisiana Purchase (the Lewis and Clark expedition is mentioned en passant), "The Prairie" sets two Indian tribes, the Sioux and the Pawnee, against each other as well as two disparate groups of white travelers. Even though Cooper had reservations regarding Sir Walter Scott that writer's influence on Cooper cannot be doubted. (One of the characters in "The Prairie" is named Le Balafré, as is a character in Scott's "Quentin Durward", published in 1823.) On the other hand, Cooper's style foreshadowed Charles Dickens in many passages, particularly the powerful depiction of frontier justice in Chapter Thirty-two. The central section of the novel, with its siege of Ishmael Bush's encampment and the portrait of Bush's Amazonian wife Esther, seems to have affected Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls". There are two young heroines, one swoony and the other spunky; but there are several heroes, including Duncan Uncas Middleton, a descendant of characters from "The Last of the Mohicans", and Hard Heart, a Pawnee partisan. (Partisan is an obscure synonym for chief which Cooper uses throughout the book.) Then there is Cooper's most famous character Natty Bumppo, who had already appeared in "The Pioneers" in 1823 and "The Last of the Mohicans" in 1826. He was to figure twice more in the 1840's as a young man, but "The Prairie" describes his final days as a graybeard. The odd thing is he's never named -- he's simply called the Trapper. Evidently his Deerslayer days are over, though he's referred to as "venable venator" by the novel's comic relief character Obed Batt (or Dr Battius, as he pedantically prefers). One assumes that Natty had become such a popular character readers were not confused by his anonymity. At any rate, he carries the complicated narrative, partly because he communicates with both the whites and the Indians in their native languages. The narrative's flow is smooth and rapid, and "The Prairie" is a page-turner for a lazy afternoon or a long flight.
Book Three of the Leatherstocking: Natty called home............2003-04-29
Third in the Leatherstocking Tales series, The Prairie finds Nathaniel Bumppo beyond the Mississippi as the encroachment of civilization pushes him further and further afield. There are five books to the Leatherstocking Tales. Cooper did not write them in chronological order. Accordingly, The Prairie relates the close of Bumppo's career among the Pawnee and Sioux of the Great Plains. As with The Pioneers, The Prairie starts slow and takes time to develop. Additional concessions must be made for a least one plot twist that tickles the limits of plausibility. It should be remembered, however, that the age and the romantic style of writing then in vogue permitted latitude today's novelists are not afforded. Be that as it may, once past this questionable plot development, it matters little for the book is that grand.
Sioux and Pawnee, contesting the plains, find Bumppo, a wagon train of shifty settlers, and a bee-hunting suitor caught between them. What follows is a historical novel which includes every ingredient required for a masterful yarn. Bumppo, in this case "the trapper", represents the ultimate antiestablishmentarian as he longs only for freedom and the space to enjoy it, despising the restrictions of polite society. It is a message that has not lost it's power. Indeed, James Fenimore Cooper, through the Leatherstocking Tales, exquisitely captures a period and place in a manner so evocative that the reader longs to range beside "the trapper" through thick and thin , through the length and breadth of the fledgling American frontier. Having read more than my share of historical fiction, The Leatherstocking Tales rate as one of the finest examples. The Prairie is no exception.
Fare thee well, Natty Bumppo.
a nice surprise.......2001-05-16
I chose to read this series in chronological order and not the order in which they were written. This being the third to be written but last in order, I read this one last. I must say that I was surprised at how enjoyable a read it was seeing that the last two I read (The Pathfinder and The Pioneers) were pretty disappointing. This novel has excellent descriptions of the prairie setting and the characters involved without weighing the reader down with page upon page of needless descriptions or rhetoric. The story line was very well-conceived, plausable, and coherent; qualities which not many books can boast. Of course, this being the last book in the series, I was concerned about how the author would conclude the saga of Natty Bumpo. Not wanting to spoil anything, I must say that I was very impressed with the way Natty's character was handled. There is nothing worse than reading five or so books and having the author ruin them all by messing up the character at the end. No need to worry here. This novel pretty much has all the ingredients which make The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans exceptional: indian warfare, revenge, some romance, the differences and similarities between Natty's and the American Indian's religious views and philosophy on life, and of course just some good ol' action. I would recommend reading this series in chronological order, but if you do have to skip one of them, The Pioneers can be that one and you would not really miss a beat.
The best Leatherstocking tale.......1998-09-02
This large, very elaborately written book is the first of the Leatherstocking tales Cooper wrote. It is, however, about Natty Bumppo's (aka Deerslayer, Leatherstocking, Hawkeye) final days. In this novel, he's more of a peripheral character, witnessing at least 2 other, very intriguing adventures.
The story is integrated in fantastic descriptions of the prairie; reading it you can almost feel the beauty and power of the unenslaved American wilderness.
Book Description
Read the account of Kajsa Svensson Runeberg, an emigrant wife who recounts, through her diary, how she and her family built up a farm on the unsettled Kansas prairie. This historical fiction is based on the Swedish woman who homesteaded the author's childhood home. "...could well be the most endearing 'first settler' account ever told. Once a reader starts the book, they are compelled to keep reading to see what will happen next on the isolated prairie homestead. Not to be missed!- Capper's Family Bookstore
Customer Reviews:
Ranks as high as Little House on the Prairie books!.......1999-03-19
One of the best "first settler" accounts I've ever read! Hubalek's story of Swedish immigrant, Kajsa, who settled in Central Kansas was riveting. I couldn't put it down until I had read the whole book. Stories of rattlesnakes coming through the dugout ceiling, prairie fires, the joys of newborn babies and the heartaches of losing loved ones.... Reading Hubalek's book shows that starting life as a homesteader was very tough, and the story was so real that I was working the sod right with her. Be sure to read the whole 4-book series, and her other two series as well.
Book Description
A feisty, bike-riding heroine, her tractor-driving grandmother, and a wolf with a hankering for Grandma's award-winning wheat berry muffins -- this is not your grandmother's Little Red Riding Hood!
Customer Reviews:
Little red riding Hood.......2005-04-01
This book is about a little girl called little red riding hood because she always wear a red jacket.One day she decided to take muffings and lemonade.While she was on her way the wolf stop her to ask her questions like what she has in the bag and where she is gonig.The wolf told her to take her grandmother some flowers and th wolf went to her grandmother's house, the wolf tried to trick her grandmother but she got him and the wolf got scare of her.The wolf became friends with her and work with her on the store and he was able to eat all the muffings he wants.
Hello little girl, what's your rush? .......2004-12-13
At long last the whole "riding" part of the title "Little Red Riding Hood" makes sense! It's difficult to resist picking up a picture book in which the subtitle uses the word "newfangled", so it was with high hopes that I paged through author/illustrator Lisa Campbell Ernst's new retelling of some classic fairy tale fodder. Initially, I was disappointed that she opted to make her wolf a little less blood-thirsty and a little more muffin-hungry. I feared that this was just the latest in authorial attempts to clean up a classic Grimm Brothers' story. But Ernst's tale is better than that. Rather than tidying up the original story, she's reworked it entirely, giving it a distinctly homegrown American taste and feel. Many countries in the world have their own wolves. This one's just an American shyster through and through.
Little Red Riding Hood (so called because she's often seen riding her bicycle while wearing a red hooded sweatshirt) lives in a rural community with her mother. One day it occurs to her that the day is going to be hot and that she should take some muffins and lemonade to her grandmother. As she travels on her merry way, she takes a shortcut through a field and the delicious wafting scent of the muffins attracts the attention of a muffin-starved wolf. He briefly waylays the kid and hurries on to grandmother's house in the hope of stealing her muffin recipe AND the tasty treats. What the wolf doesn't count on, however, is the fact that this is not your typical Red Riding Hood story. Moreover, he's not abut to face your typical Red Riding Hood grandmother.
The story has a nice choice of wording here and there culminating with grandma grabbing the wolf by the lapels and using such terms as "scoundrel" and "tarnation". Suddenly it's the WOLF who's saying "What big eyes you have" (the better to see him skulking about, he's told by a now seriously irate grandmamma). The changes in the plot have been added to this text seemingly seamlessly. It makes perfect sense that Riding Hood would be bringing treats to her grandmother because the woman would be working in the fields that day (on a tractor, no less). The wolf for his part doesn't mean any real harm. He just wants to con two "dim-witted hicks" (his words, not mine) out of something he wants. You get the distinct feeling that this here's a city wolf in a country setting. What he doesn't count on are two particularly intelligent foes.
As for the illustrations, Ernst isn't about to win any major awards for her drawing style, but they serve perfectly within the context of the story. I liked the sprawling views of granny's farm. I liked the ample kitchen in which Riding Hood's mom bakes up some muffins in what appears to be a purple velour sweatsuit. Heck, there's just a lot to like when you look at this book. And combined with a kickin' story, it's a great and fun tale. If you've a desire to give your kids a picture book that references a classic story they may already know, you can't do much better than "Little Red Riding Hood". Try pairing it with "Swamp Angel" by Anne Isaacs for a fabulous storytime involving folktales, American grit, and women defeating furry animals.
Farming Families Love It!.......2001-08-19
Cute and witty! I checked this book out at the library to read to my boys and wound up buying it for my grandmother! For all tractor-driving grannies or people who love them, this book is a big hit! I love the recipie in back, too. (Great literature tie-in activity!)
A New Twist on an Old Story!.......1999-04-05
What would the Brothers Grimm say if they could read this? Could they have predicted a savvy bike-riding "Little Red"; or a Muffin-Loving Wolf; or a liberated, tough-talking Granny, who is also a very good cook? How could they object to such a delightful interpretation of their sometimes gruesome story? Kids love this book, and so do I!
Average customer rating:
- A tragic parable, skillfully illustrated by "Cricket" magazine staff artist Carolyn Digby Conahan
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The Discontented Gopher (Prairie Tale)
L. Frank Baum
Manufacturer: South Dakota State Historical Society Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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Oz in Perspective: Magic and Myth in the L. Frank Baum Books
ASIN: 0974919594 |
Customer Reviews:
A tragic parable, skillfully illustrated by "Cricket" magazine staff artist Carolyn Digby Conahan.......2007-02-04
A short fairy tale written by L. Frank Baum, best known for his children's classic "The Wizard of Oz", The Discontented Gopher is the story of Zikky the Gopher, who amazingly wins a fantastic golden ball and with it a difficult choice - riches or happiness? Daring to choose riches, he travels through a dangerous world, and achieves the wealth he sought, but at a cost. By the time he returns home, injured and saddened, he has learned that contentment and happiness are more important than wealth and things, but he cannot bring himself to see his mother or play with other gophers again. A tragic parable, skillfully illustrated by "Cricket" magazine staff artist Carolyn Digby Conahan, The Discontented Gopher is a text-heavy story especially recommended for young readers who are ready to start reading chapter books. A word list at the end offers definitions for words such as "effaced" and "vainglory" that might be unfamiliar to young readers. Highly recommended.
Customer Reviews:
Cree Legend blended with Dreams.......1999-12-02
What a wonderful book to read to a child before bedtime! It reminded me of laying in the grass looking up at the stars and dreaming about things afar. The Cree legend elopes with the pursuit of your dreams, as rabbit and crane take you there.
Retelling of Cree legend........1999-06-26
Retells Cree legend of how Rabbit wanted to see the earth from the moon and finally gets Crane to fly him there. Crane's legs are stretched and his head is bloodied from Rabbit's hands.
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