The Pilot by James Fenimore Cooper Fiction Historical Classics Action & Adventure

<p><strong>James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) although brought up in privileged circumstances became a merchant seaman and served for three years as a midshipman in the Navy.</strong> His knowledge of the sea would serve him well in numerous novels through his long career. But it was in The Pilot that he painted the fullest and most engaging picture of the ocean-going adventurer.</p><p>Cooper was prompted by the example of Sir Walter Scott's The Pirate -- a popular novel of merit but not strictly nautical or true in its details. Scott's novel produced in Cooper a sudden determination to produce a work which if it had no other merit might present truer pictures of the ocean and ships.</p>