Favorite writer of generations of Americans, Cooper was born on Tuesday, September 15th, 1789, and grew up on his family's huge wooded settlement, in Cooperstown, New York, which his father, William Cooper, a prominent Federalist, had founded before this son's birth. His days as a Yale student were cut short when he was expelled for misbehavior. He gamely joined the navy, earning the rank of midshipman. On New Year's Day, Tuesday, January 1st, 1811 he married Susan Augusta De Lancey, settling down and writing prolifically, politically, and prodigiously. Eventually he and his wife moved south to an estate in Scarsdale, New York, where he continued to write and publish his critical, thoughtful, and creative works. Cooper died at Cooperstown on Sunday, September 14th, 1851, one day shy of reaching sixty-two.