The Spy (Cooper novel)


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. 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.

Historical accuracy

Harvey Birch, peddler and patriot, is a character remotely founded upon that of a real spy who helped John Jay. H. L. Barnum's The Spy Unmasked; or Memoirs of Enoch Crosby, alias Harvey Birch claimed to identify the historical spy.