The Prairie Author:James Fenimore Cooper The 5th and final volume of the great Leatherstocking Tales. Great Illustrated Classic: with illustrations of the author, his environment and the setting of the book. Introduction and descriptive captions by Basil Davenport.
Typical Fenimore Cooper read -- a manners novel, but one of the first depictions of the American West, and the germ of an entire genre. If you are reading outside a class, check the scholarship online, it will help immensely.