The Daughter's Labors: Susan Fenimore Cooper's Legacy for America
FAIN: FT-57383-10
Rochelle Johnson
College of Idaho (Caldwell, ID 83605-4432)
I seek support for my work toward the completion of a book-length biography of Susan Fenimore Cooper (1813-1894). Cooper was a novelist, essayist, and diarist, as well as a serious enough practitioner of natural history that her work in that area was noticed by such experts as Louis Agassiz and Charles Darwin. She was also the daughter and literary executor of a world-famous author (James Fenimore Cooper); a tireless philanthropist; and an environmental advocate who issued prescient warnings concerning forest preservation and the threat of invasive species. Her life challenges many prevalent notions about how a single woman in nineteenth-century America could contribute to shaping her culture. A biography of Cooper will contribute to studies in literary domesticity, literary history, and the history of landscape preservation efforts in the United States.