James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist, was born in Burlington, N. J., September 15, 1789, the son of William Cooper and his wife Elizabeth Fenimore. When James was an infant, his father removed to Otsego Lake, New York, and settled where Cooperstown now stands. He was educated by private tutors and at Yale. He went to sea as a seaman in 1806 and the next year was entered in the U. S. Navy. His father died in 1810 and James was married January I, 1811, to Susan De Lancey. In May of that year he resigned from the Navy and settled at Scarsdale, N. Y. His first novel "Precaution," appeared in 1820, and "The Spy" in 1821. In 1822 he went to New York City and remained there until 1826 when he took his family abroad to be educated. He returned in 1833 to Cooperstown, where he died September 14, 1851.

"O-I-Chee" was written in 1822 and was first published in The Home Weekly, May 17, 1843. According to Spiller and Blackburn it is "attributed to Cooper." Its first appearance in book form was as No. 4 of Irwin P. Beadle's American Novels. † It was twice reprinted by Beadle under the title "The Red Dwarf" in the backs of No. 79, Starr's American Novels and of No. 220, Pocket Novels, pages 73 to 85 inclusive. For more about this book, see The House of Beadle and Adams, I, 148, and the additions given in this supplement.

REFERENCES: Various biographies by H. W. Boynton, W. B. S. Clymer, J. F. Cooper, S. F. Cooper, M. E. Phillips, and T. R. Lounsbury. Robert E. Spiller and Philip C. Blackburn, Descriptive Bibliography of the Writings of James Fenimore Cooper, New York, 1934, † page 206.

† Correction made as per Volume 3.