The Spy (Cooper novel)
1821 novel by James Fenimore Cooper
The Spy: a Tale of the Neutral Ground is a novel by the American writer James Fenimore Cooper. His second novel, it was published in 1821 by Wiley & Halsted. The plot is set during the American Revolution and was inspired in part by the family friend John Jay. The Spy was successful and began Cooper's reputation as a popular and important American writer.
Synopsis
The action takes place during the American Revolutionary War at "The Locusts", which was the name given to a Colonial-style home in Scarsdale, New York. During the war, Scarsdale was in the no man's land between the British and the American armies, called the Neutral Ground. The house was built in 1787 by American Major William Popham, an officer who served on the staff of generals George Clinton and George Washington and who served as the 7th President-General of the Society of the Cincinnati, the oldest patriotic organization in the United States. The plot ranges back and forth over the neutral ground between the British and the Continental armies as the home stands between those lines.
An unknown man, known as Mr. Harper, asks for shelter at The Locusts amidst a storm.
The public source identifies “The Spy (Cooper novel)” as 1821 novel by James Fenimore Cooper. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cooper, novel and James.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16932623. VIAF identifies the subject as 215005807. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1821 and 1787.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Spy (Cooper novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.