Paul Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1899 – January 20, 1970) was an American writer of children's books and non-fiction, some based on his travels. His first book was a translation of Albanian folk tales.

Life

Paul Fenimore Cooper was born in Albany, New York, in 1899, the son of the writer James Fenimore Cooper (1858–1938) and Susan Linn (Sage) Cooper (1866–1933). His uncle

Henry M. Sage Henry Manning Sage (May 18, 1868 in Albany, New York – September 25, 1933 in Menands, Albany County, New York) was an American senator and politician from New York. He became Chairman of the State Hospital Development Commission. Early life ...

(1868–1933) became a state senator. Paul was a great-grandson of the novelist James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) and a great-great-grandson of

William Cooper William Cooper may refer to: Business *William Cooper (accountant) (1826–1871), founder of Cooper Brothers * William Cooper (businessman) (1761–1840), Canadian businessman *William Cooper (co-operator) (1822–1868), English co-operator * Will ...

(1754–1809), the founder of Cooperstown, New York. He was also distantly related to

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

State Representative Paul F. Clark. Cooper grew up in Cooperstown. He was educated at the private

Taft School The Taft School is a private, coeducational school located in Watertown, Connecticut, United States. It teaches students in 9th through 12th grades and post-graduates. About three-quarters of Taft's roughly 600 students live on the school's ...

, at

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

, and at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. At Yale he was an editor of campus humor magazine ''

The Yale Record ''The Yale Record'' is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it became the oldest humor magazine in the world when ''Punch'' folded in 2002."History", The Yale Record, March 10, 2010. http://www.yalerecord.com/about/histo ...

''.''Yale Banner and Pot Pourri''. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1926. p. 238. He married Marion Erskine. Their son Paul Fenimore (P. F. Cooper, Jr.) became a physicist and Arctic explorer; he was elected a Fellow of the Arctic Society in 1954. Some of Cooper's published books were ''Tricks of Women and Other Albanian Tales'' (1928), a translation of folk tales; '' Tal: His Marvelous Adventures with Noom-Zor-Noom'' (1929), a children's book about an orphan and the fantastical adventures he encounters on a quest to the land of Troom; ''Island of the Lost'' (1961), a non-fiction account of the Arctic expedition of

Sir John Franklin Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. After serving in wars against Napoleonic France and the United States, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through t ...

, told within a "biography" of King William Island and the resident Eskimo; and ''Dindle'' (1964), a children's book about a dwarf who saves a kingdom from a dragon. ''Tal'' has had enduring popularity; it was reprinted in new editions in 1957 and 2001.

References

Other sources:
Paul Fenimore Cooper
at

Purple House Press Purple House Press is a publishing house based in Cynthiana, Kentucky. Founded in 2000 by former software engineer Jill Morgan, it specializes in bringing out-of-print children's books back into print. In the mid-1990s, Morgan purchased a copy ...

Obituary
(1970) reprinted at JSTOR
The Cooper Genealogy
(1983) at The James Fenimore Cooper Society (oneonta.edu/cooper)

at GenForum (genealogy.com)

External links

*
P. F. Cooper, Jr.
at LC Authorities, with 2 records, an
at WorldCat
(combined with a later wetlands and groundwater specialist, probably) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Paul Fenimore 1899 births 1970 deaths American children's writers Writers from Albany, New York People from Cooperstown, New York Taft School alumni Yale College alumni Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge American expatriates in the United Kingdom