The Spy

In 1780, in the 'Neutral Ground' of Westchester County, New York, between the British and American lines during the Revolutionary War, a humble pedlar named Harvey Birch is suspected and hated by the Americans as a British spy. In fact he is working secretly for George Washington himself, who appears in disguise as 'Mr Harper', and he risks his life again and again, unable to reveal the truth even to save his own name, while the Wharton family, divided between the two sides, is caught up in the war.

James Fenimore Cooper published the novel in 1821, and it was the first great American best-seller and one of the first spy novels; Cooper based Birch partly on a story told him by John Jay. Read Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans.