James Franklin Beard, Jr.

Beard was the editor and biographer of James Fenimore Cooper, and focused four decades of his life on Cooper projects. This lifetime of work culminated in the publication of 'The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper' between 1960 and 1968, in a six-volume edition. The extensive Cooper materials at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts, served as the focal point for his research, and together they forged links with the Cooper family to attract additional manuscript materials.