The novel Wyandotte arrived at a time when a patriotic mythology about the American Revolution was developing, and Cooper's somber tale of the sufferings of an isolated family in upstate New York during the Revolution was not congruent with the celebratory stories then being told. As Edgar Allen Poe observed, in Maud Meredith Cooper creates his most spirited heroine, and in Saucy Nick, his most credible Indian.
The novel Wyandotte arrived at a time when a patriotic mythology about the American Revolution was developing, and Cooper's somber tale of the sufferings of an isolated family in upstate New York during the Revolution was not congruent with the celebratory stories then being told. As Edgar Allen Poe observed, in Maud Meredith Cooper creates his most spirited heroine, and in Saucy Nick, his most credible Indian.
