[8] Van Doren, Carl, op. cit., p. 28.
[9] See Fisher, Sidney G. The Legendary and Myth-Making Process in Histories of the American Revolution; Proceedings of the American Philosophical Soc., Vol. LI, No. 204, April–June, 1912. See also references in footnote 29, page 27 of this thesis.
[10] Van Doren, Carl, op. cit., p. 15.
[11] For the attitude of English critics toward American writings see Cairns, W. B. British Criticisms of American Writings, 1815–1833, University of Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature, No. 14. Madison, 1922.
[12] Erskine, John, op. cit., p. 65.
[13] The Pioneers (Houghton Mifflin ed.). Introduction, xxxiii, states Cooper’s intention to generalize; it further states his theory of fiction: “Rigid adhesion to truth, an indispensable requisite in history and travels, destroys the charm of fiction; for all that is necessary to be conveyed to the mind by the latter had better be done by delineations of principles, and of characters in their classes, than by a too fastidious attention to originals.”
[14] Richard Jones, a hanger-on, who conceals his dependent state by a kind of horse-play raillery of his patron and occasionally mixes toddy evidently was taken over from the bachelor in Bracebridge Hall.
[15] Van Doren, op. cit., p. 30.
[16] Introduction, xxxvii, note: “Though forests still crown the mountains of Otsego, the bear, the wolf, and the panther are nearly strangers to them.” See also p. 35.
[17] Introduction to The Pioneers, i.