James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The Ways of The Hour is Cooper's last novel, published in 1850. It is a courtroom drama of a woman accused of murder and theft. Cooper used the novel, among other things, to express his discontent with changes in New York State's judicial system during the 1840s, the corruption of courts and juries, and new ideas of women's rights.