Fenimore Cooper, wrote The Spy, hisnfirst successful novel, on a bet. Henwon. So did America. For the Northnand the West he was important becausenhe romanticized the great strugglenfor empire going on in the Americannforest; for the South he wasnimportant because he perpetuated itsnlegends. Half the leading characters ofnThe Spy are Virginians. Captain JacknLawton personifies the dashing Cavalier;nWilliam Harper, patently GeorgenWashington, plays the role of fairygodfather.nSoutherners learned quicklynfrom Cooper. Within a few years afternhis books appeared, he rivaled Scott innpopularity.nOnly three years after The Spy wasnpublished, George Tucker (1775-n1861) came forth with Valley of thenShenandoah. A member of one ofnVirginia’s most distinguished colonialnfamilies, Tucker studied law at thenCollege of William and Mary, practicednin Richmond, then moved tonWoodbridge Plantation. While servingnon various county courts he studiednScott and Cooper, then did a novel ofnhis own “to supply to youth the wisdomnand experience of age, and tonmingle instruction with pure and rationalnpleasure.” This didactic note isnstrong in early Virginia literature, almostnbecoming its raison d’etre. Likenthe Puritans to the north, Virginiansnboth described and justified their “waynof life.” To this very day, students atnthe University of Virginia call themselvesn”Cavaliers.”nIn addition to self-justification, mostnwriters go in for the literary conventionsnof their day. For 19th-centurynAmericans, that meant melodrama, setnin the rural life of antebellum Virginianwith patriarchal planters, faithful slaves,nand sweet-talking ladies. All flourishednin William Caruthers’ classic. ThenCavaliers of Virginia (1835). His goalnwas to do for Virginia what Sir WalternScott had done for Scotland. EvennVirginians can’t claim that he succeeded;nbut he certainly tried hard and wonnwide acclaim in his day.nHe began with the premise that “thenCavaliers were the first founders of thenaristocracy which prevails in Virginia tonthis day.” To know his hero, GideonnFairfax, is to know the whole breed:n”he was one of that remarkable race ofnmen which has not powerfully influencednthe destinies of the AncientnDominion from that day to thenpresent. . . . There was a sparkling ofnboyish vivacity in his eyes, and a cheerfulnexpression always hovering aboutnhis mouth, which instantly dispellednanything like formality in his intercoursenwith others. Yet withal there wasna bold, reckless daring in his look,ntogether with an open-hearted sinceritynwhich served to give a manly dignitynto the lighter expressions.” Could anyonenwish for a nobler ancestor?n”We of the South,” said RobertnToombs in his famous 1860 boast, “arena race of genflemen.” He was expressingnone aspect of the famous Cavaliernmyth of the antebellum South, a mythnfostered by so many writers and factorsnthat it is thriving, even growing, in then20th century. More than any one man,nJohn Esten Cooke, novelist, soldier,nand adventurer, established by pen andndeed the Cavalier prototype in Southernnletters.nWhen we speak of the Cavaliern”myth,” we do not mean that therenwere no Cavaliers, or Cavalier spirit, innactuality. We simply mean that thentruth has been so exaggerated, or atnleast romanticized, that there is littlenconnection between the historical factsnand the often-repeated stories aboutnSouthern life. Even such a dyed-inthe-woolnYankee as the abolitionistnWilliam Ellery Channing paid homagento the genflemanly qualities he observednin Richmond while he was antutor there:nI blush for my own peoplenwhen I compare the selfishnprudence of a Yankee with thengenerous confidence of anVirginian. . . . There is onensingle trait which attaches me tonthe people here more than allnthe virtues of New England.nThey love money less than wendo. Their patriotism is not tiednto their purse strings.nSuch was the confidence and patriotismnof John Esten Cooke (1830-1886),nwhose novels left an indelible mark onnthe Virginia mind. Born in Winchesternand educated in Richmond, he was thenson of John Rogers Cooke and MarianPendleton. Much of his youth was spentnin the Valley, in and around the familynplace, Glengary. Later he studied law innhis father’s office, and was admitted tonthe bar in 1851. But bolstered up bynnnacceptance from the Southern LiterarynMessenger and Harper’s, he decided tonbecome a writer. One has only to notenPoe’s tragic career to perceive howndifficult a profession it was in 19thcenturynAmerica. That Cooke was sonsuccessful, and at the same time sonfaithful to the historical material hendealt with, is a tribute to his greatntalent.nAlways prolific, he produced two ofnhis best novels in 1854, his first fullnwriting year: Leather Stocking and Silknand The Virginia Comedians. Thesentwo influential books are connectingnlinks between the early Virginian novelistsn(such as Caruthers, Kennedy,nand Tucker) and later figures like Page,nCabell, and Glasgow. “My aim,”nCooke recorded for posterity, “hasnbeen to paint the Virginia phase ofnAmerican society, to do for the OldnDominion what Cooper has done fornthe Indians, Simms for the Revolutionaryndrama in South Carolina, Irving fornthe Dutch Knickerbockers, and Hawthornenfor the Puritan life of NewnEngland.” His work over the nextndecade attests to his success. Ellie; ornthe Human Comedy (1855), The Lastnof the Foresters (1856), and Henry St.nJohn, Gentleman (1859) showednAmerica what the Cavalier was like,nand how the gentleman lived. And thenWar Between the States, which cutninto Cooke’s promising literary career,ngave him the chance to show how thenCavalier behaved in battle.nAn ardent secessionist and admirernof J.E.B. Stuart, Cooke served withnbrilliance throughout the war, and buriednhis spurs at Appomattox. Somehow,nduring all the campaigning, thenyoung novelist was able to write andnpublish The Life of Stonewall Jacksonn(1863). As dashing and colorful as thenfamous General Stuart with whom henrode, Cooke read by firelight booksncaptured from the Yankee armies. Hennever allowed enemy forces to interferenwith his meals, continuing to eat fromna plate near his horse until the Yankeesnwere within two hundred yards. Thennhe would gulp down his coffee andngallop away. No wonder his friendsnassociated him with the Cavaliers heninvented with his pen!nFortunately, we have a passage innJohn Esten Gooke’s own handwritingnthat describes his efforts at wartimenwriting:nJANUARY 1991/57n