Photo by Chris HouchensNatty Bumppo in his office.

You may remember Natty Bumppo as the protagonist in James Fenimore Cooper’s American classic “Leatherstocking Tales”. But people in Edmonson County know Natty Bumppo as the former County Attorney and current Master Commissioner who has a law office located in a rustic shack in the woods on top of the hill near Mohawk. What fewer people realize is that in addition to being an attorney, Bumppo is an accomplished author and publisher of several books.

Even if you have trouble remembering people’s names, it’s hard to forget the unique name of this white bearded gentleman with a rich and varied life story. But his name is not a gift from his parents. He picked it himself after someone else caused his original name to become a liability to an attorney.

Natty Bumppo used to be named John Edwin Dean. It was a name that served him well for the first few decades of his life until national events caused him to be associated with that “other” John Dean.

John Dean III was White House Counsel to President Nixon and was accused of being one of the masterminds of the Watergate cover up. He was convicted of multiple felonies relating to the scandal and then became a key witness for the prosecution in an effort to reduce his jail sentence.

As a young lawyer in the 1970’s during the Watergate era, Natty Bumppo found it was hard to practice law with a name like John Dean.

Judges would look over the bench and say with a snicker, “John Dean? I thought you had been disbarred!”

That led John Dean to the courthouse in Chicago to change his legal name to Nathaniel John Balthazar Bumppo.

Watch Amplifer video of Natty Bumppo telling the story of why he changed his name—

The idea for the name actually came before the need for it. Dean was reading the book, “Nixon Agonistes” by Garry Wills which contained a reference to John F. Kennedy’s quote about “blazing a new spiritual frontier with Natty Bumppo shrewdness and nerve”

He asked his coworkers who Natty Bumppo was.

“An Indian”, said one.

“A scout”, said another.

“Maybe he was an Indian Scout”, said the first.

“I like Natty Bumppo.” Dean said. “I want to be Natty Bumppo.”

But a few years later with the negative aspects surrounding Watergate’s John Dean, John felt he needed to become Natty Bumppo.

So he did.

A short time after his name change, he wrote the feature article “Why I’d Rather Be Natty Bumppo than John Dean (Wouldn’t Everybody?)” which was published in the June 1975 issue of Esquire magazine. Click here to read Natty’s Esquire article.

That wasn’t Natty’s first encounter with writing. He had already had an article published in Rolling Stone magazine. And he had held several positions including reporter and copy editor at newspapers in Indiana, California, and Michigan during the 1960’s. He achieved his law degree from Northwestern University while working at the Chicago Sun-Times.

And while he’d had success with writing, it was frustration with the hassles and rejections by traditional publishers that caused Natty to start his own publishing company, Borf Books.

“We came up with this book, ‘Ideas for a Better America’ in 1980. It was a lampoon and we couldn’t find a publisher. We thought it should be published even if only two people bought it, which was about the case!” said Bumppo. “But it was the concept that the artist needs to do his art whether or not he is recognized.”

Borf Books is a unique name as well. Around the time of the publishing company launch, Natty’s wife, Dorothy (Natalie Bumppo) joked that she was going to change her name (again) to “Borf, just Borf”. At which point, her daughter started screaming because she’d had enough name changing. While that was just a joke, they decided that Borf was a great name for their publishing company.

Borf Books also carries postcards and a line of bumper stickers that have deep thoughts for the road such as “If pigs had guns, we wouldn’t have bacon!”, “Zap zygotes and die!”, “Split wood, not atoms”, “I brake for snakes”, and the self promoting, “Bumpposticker”.

While “Ideas for a Better America”, a collection of short satire pieces, was the springboard for the publishing company and the inspiration for several of Natty’s later books, his two most sought after books are about a grisly true crime and an old-fashioned card game.

Natty wrote the “The Indiana Torture Slayings” when he was still John Dean. As a newspaperman for the Indianapolis Star, he had covered the trial of Indiana housewife Gertrude Baniszewski who was convicted for the torture and brutal murder of Sylvia Likens in 1965.

The gruesome and disturbing true story was described by the prosecutor in the trial as the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana. Likens’ parents had left her in Baniszewski’s care. Baniszewski, two of her children, and two other children then tortured and sadistically killed Likens in the basement.

The first printing of the book sold nearly 55,000 copies in the late 1960s. A second edition was released by Borf Books in 1999. The book will also have a third life as it’s poised to be published by St. Martins Press. There is a renewed interest in the story of the death of Sylvia Likens since the release of the 2007 feature film, An American Crime, starring Bradley Whitford, Ellen Page, and Catherine Keener. The film, which tells the story of the murder, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2007.

Another popular title from Borf Books that Natty wrote is “The Columbus Book of Euchre”. Euchre is a card game that was widely popular in the United States in the 19th century. Even though its popularity has declined nationally, the game still has dedicated players in certain areas of the country particularly the Midwest and Northeast.

“I played it a lot in college and really all my life.” said Bumppo. “I got to thinking there hasn’t been a book published on Euchre since 1905. So I wrote one!”

A fun book that sprang from a mention in “Ideas for a Better America” is 1982’s “A Rug Before My Time: The Memoirs of Pecker the Cat”. Natty had his secretary dictate everything that the cat said and her dictation is the basis of the book. For those that don’t speak the language of the feline, there is a glossary included for translation.

Watch Amplifer video of Natty Bumppo talking about getting into the publishing business and about Pecker the Cat writing a book.—

In “Ideas for a Better America”, Natty states that “some of the best writing in America goes unpublished daily through the U.S. mail”. There are several humorous letter exchanges between Natty and corporations in “Ideas” and an entire Borf Book is dedicated to them in 1997’s “Dear sir (you cur):” Another epistolary book from Borf is 1992’s “Lonely Hearts” which is the ”true story of one man’s (and 138 women’s) adventures in correspondence through 202 letters, 31 postcards, 28 telephone calls, 17 personal ads, 13 illustrations, 2 telephone bills and one poem.”

Natty brought his legal and writing worlds together in 2005’s “War Stories: The Memoirs of a Country Lawyer”. The book recounts humorous and true stories from Natty’s legal career that showcase the local color and folklore of life in Southern Kentucky.

As you sit in Natty Bumppo’s office next to his potbellied stove and listen to him recount some of these tales and talk about his life, you can tell that he has enjoyed every minute. When he tells a story, there’s a twinkle in his eye, quick grins, and hearty chuckles. He’s figured out that it’s best not to take life too seriously.

Visit Natty and browse his books at his website.

About the writer: Chris Houchens is the Online Director for the Daily News and the Amplifier. He is also known in some circles as a marketing guru. Find out more at http://www.ChrisHouchens.com.