ls, _The
Bravo_ (1831), _The Heidenmauer_ (1832) and _The Headsman: or the Abbaye
of Vigneron_ (1833), were designed to exalt the people at the expense of
the aristocracy. Of these the first is by no means a bad story, but the
others are among the dullest ever written; all were widely read on both
sides of the Atlantic.

In 1833 Cooper returned to America, and immediately published _A Letter
to my Countrymen_, in which he gave his own version of the controversy
he had been engaged in, and passed some sharp censure on his compatriots
for their share in it. This attack he followed up with _The Monikins_
(1835) and _The American Democrat_ (1835); with several sets of notes on
his travels and experiences in Europe, among which may be remarked his
_England_ (1837), in three volumes, a burst of vanity and ill-temper;
and with _Homeward Bound_, and _Home as Found_ (1838), noticeable as
containing a highly idealized portrait of himself. All these books
tended to increase the ill-feeling between author and public; the Whig
press was virulent and scandalous in its comments, and Cooper plunged
into a series of actions for libel. Victorious in all of them, he
returned to his old occupation with something of his old vigour and
success. A _History of the Navy of the United States_ (1839),
supplemented (1846) by a set of _Lives of Distinguished American Naval
Officers_, was succeeded by _The Pathfinder_ (1840), a good
"Leatherstocking" novel; by _Mercedes of Castile_ (1840); _The
Deerslayer_ (1841); by _The Two Admirals_ and by _Wing and Wing_ (1842);
by _Wyandotte, The History of a Pocket Handkerchief_, and _Ned Myers_
(1843); and by _Afloat and Ashore, or the Adventures of Miles
Wallingford_ (1844). From pure fiction, however, he turned again to the
combination of art and controversy in which he had achieved distinction,
and in the two _Littlepage Manuscripts_ (1845-1846) he fought with a
great deal of vigour. His next novel was _The Crater, or Vulcan's Peak_
(1847), in which he attempted to introduce supernatural machinery with
indifferent success; and this was succeeded by _Oak Openings_ and _Jack
Tier_ (1848), the latter a curious _rifacimento_ of _The Red Rover_; by
_The Sea Lions_ (1849); and finally by _The Ways of the Hour_ (1850),
another novel with a purpose, and his last book. He died of dropsy on
the 14th of September 1851 at Cooperstown, New York. His daughter, Susan
Fenimore Cooper (1813-1894), was known as an author an