Books with title The Spy

The Spy is a historical novel that was written by James Fenimore Cooper. The book is set during the American Revolution and centers around the life and adventures of Harvey Birch, a character that is based off a real spy who had helped John Jay. The book was published in 1821 and is one of the earliest American novels to gain wide popularity. James Fenimore Cooper was one of the most popular American authors in the early 19th century. Cooper wrote many historical romances that depicted frontier and Indian life. Cooper also served in the U.S. Navy and many of his books were based off his experiences. Cooper's most famous books are the five novels that form The Leatherstocking Tales, especially The Last of the Mohicans which is considered to be his masterpiece.

It was near the close of the year 1780 that a solitary traveler was seen pursuing his way through one of the numerous little valleys of Westchester. The easterly wind, with its chilling dampness and increasing violence, gave unerring notice of the approach of a storm, which, as usual, might be expected to continue for several days; and the experienced eye of the traveler was turned in vain, through the darkness of the evening, in quest of some convenient shelter, in which, for the term of his confinement by the rain that already began to mix with the atmosphere in a thick mist, he might obtain such accommodations as his purposes required. Nothing whatever offered but the small and inconvenient tenements of the lower order of the inhabitants, with whom, in that immediate neighborhood, he did not think it either safe or politic to trust himself.