The Oak Openings; or, The Bee Hunter is an 1848 novel by James Fenimore Cooper. The novel focuses on the activities of professional honey-hunter Benjamin Boden, nicknamed "Ben Buzz". The novel is set in Kalamazoo, Michigan's Oak Opening, a wooded prairie that still exists in part today, [1] [2] during the War of 1812. [3]
After returning from his European travels in the 1830s, Cooper was persuaded by his niece's husband, Horace H. Comstock, to invest in Michigan real estate. The Potawatomi had ceded much of their land in central Michigan by 1833 and their former territory became known as "oak-openings". By 1837, Cooper's $6,000 investment was losing value, though he watched as his fellow New Yorkers attempted to colonize the area like honeybees. [4] The experience inspired The Oak Openings; or, The Bee Hunter, and the novel became one of the first representations of beekeeping in American literature. [5] Though not the first author to use the term "oak openings", Frederick Marryat did so, Cooper popularized the term for the type of oak clad Savannah with the publication of the novel. [6]
The novel is Cooper's last "wilderness novel" following his Leatherstocking Tales and serves as a melancholy follow-up to that series. [7] It is also the last of his novels to explore the relationships between Europeans and Native Americans in the early American expansion. [8] [9]
The novel has a significant religious thematic focus. [10]
The novel explores assumptions about individual and Native American ownership of property, a continuation of issues that some of Cooper's other works deal with, as in the tract The American Democrat . [5]
The main character, Benjamin Boden, is compared symbolically to the bees which he tends through nicknames like "Buzzing Ben" and the French term le Bourdon ("the drone"), which shows him as an industrious laborer. [11]
Schoolcraft is a village in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States. The village is located in Schoolcraft Township approximately 13 miles (21 km) south of Kalamazoo on U.S. Route 131. The population was 1,525 at the 2010 census. The village is named in honor of geographer, geologist, and ethnologist Henry Schoolcraft.
James Fenimore Cooper was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries created a unique form of American literature. He lived much of his boyhood and the last fifteen years of life in Cooperstown, New York, which was founded by his father William Cooper on property that he owned. Cooper became a member of the Episcopal Church shortly before his death and contributed generously to it. He attended Yale University for three years, where he was a member of the Linonian Society.
The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 is a historical novel written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1826.
The Leatherstocking Tales is a series of five novels by American writer James Fenimore Cooper, set in the eighteenth-century era of development in the primarily former Iroquois areas in central New York. Each novel features Natty Bumppo, a frontiersman known to European-American settlers as "Leatherstocking", "The Pathfinder", and "the trapper". Native Americans call him "Deerslayer", "La Longue Carabine", and "Hawkeye".
The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna; a Descriptive Tale is a historical novel by American writer James Fenimore Cooper. It was the first of five novels published which became known as the Leatherstocking Tales. Published in 1823, The Pioneers is the fourth novel in terms of the chronology of the novels' plots.
Chingachgook is a fictional character in four of James Fenimore Cooper's five Leatherstocking Tales, including his 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans. Chingachgook was a lone Mohican chief and companion of the series' hero, Natty Bumppo. In The Deerslayer, Chingachgook married Wah-ta-Wah, who bore him a son named Uncas, but died while she was still young. Uncas, who was at his birth "last of the Mohicans", grew to manhood but was killed in a battle with the Huron warrior Magua. Chingachgook died as an old man in the novel The Pioneers, which makes him the actual "last of the Mohicans," having outlived his son.
William James Beal was an American botanist. He was a pioneer in the development of hybrid corn and the founder of the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden.
The Crater, or Vulcan's Peak: a Tale of the Pacific is a novel by James Fenimore Cooper first published in 1847. Cooper incorporated knowledge of ship construction he had acquired while working as a U.S. Navy midshipman in the 1810s.
The Bravo is a novel by James Fenimore Cooper first published in 1831 in two volumes. Inspired by a trip to Europe where he traveled through much of Italy, the novel is set in Venice. The Bravo is the first of Cooper's three novels to be set in Europe. This group of three novels, which one critic would call Cooper's "European trilogy", include The Heidenmauer and The Headsman. Like his other novels set in Europe, The Bravo was not very well received in the United States. The book largely focuses on political themes, especially the tension between the social elite and other classes.
The Spy: a Tale of the Neutral Ground is a novel by American writer James Fenimore Cooper. His second novel, it was published in 1821 by Wiley & Halsted. The plot is set during the American Revolution and was inspired in part by the family friend John Jay. The Spy was successful and began Cooper's reputation as a popular and important American writer.
Mercedes of Castile; or, The Voyage to Cathay is an 1840 historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper. The novel is set in 15th-century Europe, and follows the preparations and expedition of Christopher Columbus westward to the new world.
The Monikins is an 1835 novel, written by James Fenimore Cooper. The novel, a beast fable, was written between his composition of two of his more famous novels from the Leatherstocking Tales, The Prairie and The Pathfinder. Critic Christina Starobin compares the novel's plot to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. The novel, narrated by the main character, the English Sir John Goldencalf, is a satire. Goldencalf and the American captain Noah Poke travel on a series of humorous adventures to an Antarctic archipelago inhabited by a race of civilized monkeys.
The Water-Witch is an 1830 novel by James Fenimore Cooper. Set in 17th century New York and the surrounding sea, the novel depicts the abduction of a woman, Alida de Barbérie, by the pirate captain of the brigantine Water-Witch, and the subsequent pursuit of that elusive ship by her suitor, Captain Ludlow.
Satanstoe is an 1845 novel by the early American novelist James Fenimore Cooper. The novel, sometimes listed with the alternate title The Family of Littlepage or The Littlepage Manuscripts, is the first of a three novel cycle, followed by The Chainbearer and The Redskins. The novel is a fictional autobiography which explores the 18th century colony of New York.
The Two Admirals is an 1842 nautical fiction novel by American author James Fenimore Cooper. The novel was written after the Leatherstocking Tales novel The Deerslayer. Set during the 18th century and exploring the British Royal Navy, Cooper wrote the novel out of encouragement of his English publisher, who recommended writing another sea novel. Cooper had originally intended to write a novel where ships were the main characters, though eventually decided not to. The novels is one of three novels which Cooper would revise for editions following their first printing, the other two being The Pathfinder and Deerslayer.
Wyandotté is a historical novel published by James Fenimore Cooper in 1843. The novel is set in New York state during the American Revolution. The main character of the novel is an Indian, "Saucy Nick", also called Wyandotté, whose depictions violate stereotypes of Native Americans.
The Wing-and-Wing; Or, Le Feu-Follet is an 1842 sea novel by American author James Fenimore Cooper. The novel includes a thematic interest in religiosity and faith. The novel also introduces metacriticism into Cooper's sea fiction, as does The Sea Lions, unlike earlier novels which typically also focused on nautical and nationalist themes.
Henry Spotswood Fenimore Cooper was a writer and local environmentalist. He was a longtime contributor to The New Yorker, predominantly covering NASA's space program. Cooper also wrote eight books about space exploration throughout his lifetime. He was a noted chronicler of events at the Century Association, a private club in New York City.
Horace Hawkins Comstock was an American businessman, lawyer, and politician. He was very successful in business as a young man, purchased large quantities of land in the Michigan Territory in the early 1830s, founded the town of Comstock, Michigan, and served multiple terms in the Michigan Legislature. He built a reputation as a generous and helpful citizen, but following the death of his first wife, his family began to fall apart and his finances suffered, and he died intestate with little of his fortune left.
The Last of the Mohicans: The Death of Cora, also known as Indian Sacrifice, is a c. 1827 painting by British-American painter Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School. The painting depicts the death of Cora from the 1826 American novel The Last of the Mohicans. It is one of four such paintings by Cole which depict scenes from the novel. The painting is currently owned by the University of Pennsylvania.
