"The Spy: a Tale of the Neutral Ground" by James Fenimore Cooper, published in 1821, was the second American novel to achieve wide fame. Set during the American Revolution in a "neutral ground" between British and Continental armies, it features a peddler named Harvey Birch who secretly serves as a patriot spy, a role revealed only after his death in battle.
"The Spy: a Tale of the Neutral Ground" by James Fenimore Cooper, published in 1821, was the second American novel to achieve wide fame. Set during the American Revolution in a "neutral ground" between British and Continental armies, it features a peddler named Harvey Birch who secretly serves as a patriot spy, a role revealed only after his death in battle.
| Front | The Spy |
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| Back | The Spy: a Tale of the Neutral Ground was James Fenimore Cooper's second novel, published in 1821 by Wiley & Halsted. This was the earliest American novel to win wide and permanent fame and may be said to have begun the type of romance which dominated U.S. fiction for 30 years. Plot The action takes place during the American Revolution, at "The Locusts", which is believed to have been the real family home of John Jay in Rye, Westchester County, New York (known today as the Jay Estate). The plot ranges back and forth over the neutral ground between the British and Continental armies. Harvey Birch, a peddler, has a meeting with a Mr. Harper at The Locusts, the country home of a British sympathizer located between the lines. The peddler comes under suspicion for being a British spy in consequence, but he is really a patriot, as Mr. Harper is George Washington in disguise, with whom Birch has other meetings in the course of the book. Birch's role is revealed only after falling in battle |
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