The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper is the second Twin Peaks novel, written by Scott Frost.
The novel is presented as a collection of transcripts from Agent Dale Cooper's audio tapes, from his childhood to the day he is assigned to the Laura Palmer case. The book includes Dale's upbringing in Philadelphia, family, education at Quaker institutions Germantown Friends School and Haverford College, first stumbles with love, obsession with the FBI, and the relationship between him, Windom Earle, and Earle's wife, Caroline. Many of these tape transcripts are dictated to "Diane," though a later tape states that Cooper enjoys the thought of Diane listening to his tapes so much that he will address all tapes to her, whether she will ever listen to them or not.
Discrepancies[]
Continuity errors[]
- Albert Rosenfield's surname is spelled as "Rosenfelt."
- Caroline Earle is stated to have died in 1979, when in the series, Cooper said she died "four years ago," which would place her murder around 1985.
- The largest inconsistencies lie with the murder of Teresa Banks, as the book was written before the making of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
- In the book, Teresa's body is found in a ditch, she worked at Cross River Café and she lived in a lakeside cabin, none of which is true in the film.
- In the book, Cooper investigates Teresa's murder. In the film, the case is assigned to Chester Desmond and Sam Stanley. It was originally planned for Cooper to investigate in the film, but Kyle MacLachlan wished to have a smaller role.
- The Final Dossier has many inconsistencies with this novel, especially the Windom Earle related sections, but the former explains that Diane's double heavily modified the content of the tapes while doing their transcripts.
Historical inaccuracies[]
- Cooper says on April 20, 1968 that he performed the Heimlich maneuver on his scoutmaster. However, the Heimlich maneuver was first introduced in 1974.
- Robert F. Kennedy's assassination is presented in the book as if he died within hours after his shooting, as Cooper's father gets him out of bed at 3:30 a.m. on June 6 to watch news coverage, as if his shooting was just reported. At 5:00 a.m., Cooper indicates that Kennedy had died by then. While the time of death is accurate, Kennedy was shot 26 hours before his death and it was reported by the media quickly after it occurred, which would almost certainly mean that the Coopers would have already been aware of the shooting.
- Cooper notes on May 12, 1969 that it is Mother's Day. In real life, Mother's Day that year was on the day before.
Appearances[]
- Individuals
- Buzz Aldrin
- Allen
- Andy
- Neil Armstrong (narrator)
- Baldini
- Ellen Banks
- Teresa Banks
- Tony Banks
- Barstow
- Betty
- Blue man
- Botnick
- Allen K. Boyle
- Brumley
- Dennis Bryson
- Bush
- Cable
- Willa Cather
- Charlotte
- Chess player
- Gordon Cole
- Ronald Colman
- Al Cooper
- Dale Cooper (narrator)
- Dale Cooper's father
- Dale Cooper's grandmother
- Dale Cooper's mother
- Emmet Cooper
- Newt Cummings (narrator)
- Louis Dante
- John Dillinger
- Caroline Earle (narrator)
- Windom Earle (narrator)
- Carl Engler (narrator)
- Diane Evans (narrator)
- Benjamin Franklin
- Bill Fraser
- Joan Fraser
- Lena Fraser
- Todd Fraser
- George
- Margaret Hastings (narrator)
- J. Edgar Hoover
- Hord
- Howard
- Jim
- L.B. Johnson
- Tom Johnson
- Will Johnson
- Bobby Kennedy
- Martin Luther King
- April Larken
- Laudner
- Lars
- D.H. Lawrence
- Lazer
- Jimmy Lester
- John Lewis
- Abraham Lincoln
- Robin Masters
- Eugene L. Motts
- Richard Nixon
- Jim Nordine
- Lewis Nordine (narrator)
- Mr. Nordstrom
- Mrs. Nordstrom
- Nancy Nordstrom
- Lee Harvey Oswald
- Peale
- Perkins
- Steven Petrini
- Randy
- Bill Raum (narrator)
- Chris Roe
- Albert Rosenfield
- Bradley Schlurman (narrator)
- Marie Schlurman (narrator)
- Daren Seedler
- Shamrock
- Simms
- Aldo Smith (narrator)
- Duke Snyder
- Sparks
- Spider
- Star
- Jimmy Stewart
- Anne Sweeny
- Ted
- Howard Teller (narrator)
- Tess
- Tim
- Tooley
- Michael Bishop Tree
- George Washington
- Weller
- Winslow
- Efrem Zimbalist
- Locations
- Bloomsburg
- Bryn Mawr College
- California
- Canada
- Central Park
- Chelsea
- Chelton
- Chicago
- Colombia
- Colorado
- Cuba
- Custer State Park
- Deer Meadow
- Disneyland
- Don and Jim's Body Shop
- Duva's Café
- Fairmount Park
- FBI Academy
- Fernwood
- Florida
- France
- Germantown Road
- Germantown Friends School
- Germany
- Grand Canyon
- Grand Tetons
- Greene
- Guatemala
- Haverford College
- Hawaii
- Hershey
- 1127 Hillcrest Avenue
- Hoover Dam
- Kentucky
- Las Vegas
- Lunch Pal
- Maine
- Memphis
- Mexico
- Minnesota
- Moon
- Mount Rushmore
- Mr. Steak
- Netherlands
- Nevada
- New York
- New York City
- North America
- Pennsylvania
- Pentagon
- Perrysville
- Petrini Smoke and Book Shop
- Philadelphia
- Pittsburgh
- Poconos
- Post and Beam
- Promised Land Lake
- Quantico
- Reading
- Reno
- Route 487
- San Francisco
- Sea of Tranquility
- Simms' Hardware
- St. Joseph's Hospital
- South America
- Tennessee
- Tibet
- Twin Peaks
- United States
- Vietnam
- Virginia
- Washington
- Washington, D.C.
- White House
- Organizations
- 24th Street Gang
- Apache
- Boy Scouts
- Catholicism
- Communism
- Cooper's Offset Printing
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Islam
- Judaism
- National Geographic
- National Park Service
- Nazism
- Peace Corps
- Protestantism
- Quakers
- Sioux
- Unitarianism
- United States Air Force
- United States Army
- Objects
- Asparagus
- Bat
- Bible
- Chess
- Coffee
- Crow
- Dale Cooper's ring
- Dodge Charger
- Donut
- Eagle
- Electricity
- The FBI Story
- Fear and Anxiety
- "Gloire de Dijon"
- The Grapes of Wrath
- HAM radio
- Hawaii Five-0
- Heimlich maneuver
- The Hound of the Baskervilles
- Ice Capades
- Jell-O
- Kama Sutra
- Medieval Epics
- My Mind, Your Mind 4001
- Norelco B2000
- Nudes on Ice
- Old Spice
- Pie
- Pyramid
- Raspberry brandy
- Rice Krispies
- SAT
- Scrabble
- Shame and Mother
- Stingray
- Thinking 3005
- Timex
- VapoRub
- Visual Information Processing
- Volkswagen
- Why We Forget 4002
- The Wild, Wild West
- Titles
- Events
- Apollo 11
- Christmas
- May Day
- Mother's Day
- Vietnam War
- World War II