The Deerslayer

James Fenimore Cooper

Jan 2006 · Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Raymond Todd

About this audiobook

Set during the French and Indian Wars, The Deerslayer vividly captures the violence and rugged beauty of the American frontier. In the wilds of New York, where tensions rage between tribal Indians and white pioneers, a white hunter known as Deerslayer is initiated into the moral codes of wilderness society. When he and his loyal Mohican friend attempt the daring rescue of an Indian maiden, they are caught in the crossfire between a cunning enemy and two merciless white bounty hunters who kill for profit. A fine combination of romance, adventure, and morality, this classic novel is an eloquent beginning for Cooper's great wilderness saga, the Leatherstocking Tales-and an unforgettable introduction to the famous character who has been said to embody the conscience of America: the noble woodsman Deerslayer.

About the author

James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851), the first major American novelist, was the son of a wealthy landowner who founded Cooperstown, New York. He attended Yale and served in the navy before turning to writing, winning international fame with The Spy (1821). After The Pioneers (1823), public fascination with the character of Natty Bumppo led him to write a series of sequels that gradually unfold the entire life of the frontier scout.

Raymond Todd is an actor and director in the theater as well as a poet and documentary filmmaker. He plays jazz trombone for the Leatherstocking quartet, an ensemble that gets its name from one of his favorite Blackstone narrations, The Deerslayer. Todd lives in New York.