Susan Fenimore Cooper
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer and amateur naturalist. She was born in Scarsdale, New York
Scarsdale, New York
Scarsdale is a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the northern suburbs of New York City. The Town of Scarsdale is coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate solely with a village government, one of several villages...
, the daughter of the well known novelist James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
. 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
Amanuensis
Amanuensis is a Latin word adopted in various languages, including English, for certain persons performing a function by hand, either writing down the words of another or performing manual labour...
, and but for her father's prohibition would naturally have become his biographer.
In 1873, she founded an orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
in Cooperstown, 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.
Her home was built mainly with bricks and materials from the ruins of Otsego Hall
Otsego Hall
Otsego Hall was a house in Cooperstown, New York, United States which was the ancestral mansion of United States novelist James Fenimore Cooper. It was built by William Cooper, the novelist's father and founder of Cooperstown, where the mansion was located. Construction was started in 1796 and...
, where her parents and grandparents lived. She died in Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown is a village in Otsego County, New York, USA. It is located in the Town of Otsego. The population was estimated to be 1,852 at the 2010 census.The Village of Cooperstown is the county seat of Otsego County, New York...
.
Works
- Elinor Wyllys, a novel (1846)
- Rural Hours, her most famous book, a nature diary of Cooperstown, New YorkCooperstown, New YorkCooperstown is a village in Otsego County, New York, USA. It is located in the Town of Otsego. The population was estimated to be 1,852 at the 2010 census.The Village of Cooperstown is the county seat of Otsego County, New York...
(New York, 1850) - The Journal of a Naturalist, an English book edited and annotated by her (1853)
- Rhyme and Reason of Country Life (1885)
- Mt. Vernon to the Children of America (1859)