Susan Fenimore Cooper
| Susan Fenimore Cooper | |
|---|---|
 Cooper in the 1850s |
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| Born | Susan Augusta Fenimore Cooper April 17, 1813 Scarsdale, New York, United States |
| Died | December 31, 1894 (aged 81) Cooperstown, New York, United States |
| Occupation | Writer, founder of orphanage |
| Language | English |
| Period | 19th century |
| Genres | Fiction and natural history |
| Relative(s) | James Fenimore Cooper (father) |
Susan Augusta Fenimore Cooper (April 17, 1813 – December 31, 1894) was an American writer and amateur naturalist.
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Early life, education and career [edit]
She was born in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of the novelist James Fenimore Cooper. She was his second child, and the eldest to survive her youth. During the later years of her father's life, she became his secretary and amanuensis, and but for her father's prohibition would probably have become his biographer.
In 1873, she founded an orphanage in Cooperstown, New York, and under her superintendence it became in a few years a prosperous charitable institution. It was begun in a modest house in a small way with five pupils; in 1900 the building, which was erected in 1883, sheltered ninety boys and girls. The orphans were taken when quite young, were fed, clothed, and given a basic education, and when old enough positions were found for them in “good Christian families.” Some of them before leaving were taught to earn their own living.
In furtherance of the work to which she consecrated her later years, and which she termed her "life work", during 1886 she established The Friendly Society. Every woman on becoming a member of the Society chooses one of the girls in the orphanage and makes her the object of her special care and solicitude.
Personal life [edit]
Her home was built mainly with bricks and materials from the ruins of Otsego Hall, in Cooperstown, where her parents and grandparents lived.
She died, age 81, in Cooperstown.
Works [edit]
| Library resources |
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| About Susan Fenimore Cooper |
| By Susan Fenimore Cooper |
- Elinor Wyllys – A Tale, a novel (with James Fenimore Cooper). 1845. London: Richard Bentley. OCLC 11850952.
- Rural Hours, a nature diary of Cooperstown, New York 1850. New York City: George Palmer Putnam. OCLC 428430990.
- Rural Hours. Boston and New York City: Houghton, Mifflin, 1887, at A Celebration of Women Writers
- Country Rambles in England; or, Journal of a Naturalist, authored by John Leonard Knapp, Notes and Additions by Susan Fenimore Cooper (1853)
- The Journal of a Naturalist, English edition of Rural Hours (1855)
- Rhyme and Reason of Country Life (1885)
- Mt. Vernon to the Children of America (1859)
See also [edit]
Notes [edit]
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (October 2012) |
References [edit]
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Wikisource has original works written by or about: |
Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "Cooper, James Fenimore". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. The note about her being the eldest of the children to survive her youth is from the 1889 edition.
External links [edit]
- Essays by Susan Fenimore Cooper at Quotidiana.org
- Susan Fenimore Cooper page from James Fenimore Cooper Society Website
- Works by Susan Fenimore Cooper at The Online Books Page
- Works by Susan Fenimore Cooper at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Susan Fenimore Cooper in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
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- 1813 births
- 1894 deaths
- 19th-century American novelists
- 19th-century women writers
- American founders
- American nature writers
- American philanthropists
- American women writers
- Founders of orphanages
- People from Cooperstown, New York
- People from Scarsdale, New York
- Women writers from New York
- American novelist, 19th century birth stubs
- New York stubs
