Reviews for Boone : a biography
Publishers Weekly
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Many historical figures are more interesting in reality than in myth. Daniel Boone was one of them. Brilliant explorer, trapper and pathfinder, renowned marksman and revolutionary militia officer, he was also a loner, parent, legislator, settler and failed speculator. Poet and fiction writer Morgan (Gap Creek) portrays Boone in lively prose but also in excessive detail. Must we know of Boone's life week by week or of favored Shawnee coital positions? And must he give us references to Emerson, Thoreau and Faulkner? Morgan is a trustworthy, up-to-date authority who needs no support from others. Boone comes fully alive in his pages. Morgan's objectivity gives us a completely realized man, the greatest pioneer of the Trans-Appalachian west, who helped open Kentucky to settlement but kept going, settling eventually in Missouri. His luck was as legendary as his deeds, given what he seems to have escaped. Yet Morgan skillfully assesses and often questions the validity of all the tales of good fortune and heroism attached to Boone. Most appealing today, Boone was deeply respectful of the native tribes, a respect returned by the Indians, many of whom he befriended even when he was in conflict with them. If only others had possessed his wisdom and character. Illus., maps. (Oct. 16) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
"*Starred Review* It is, of course, difficult for a biographer to glean the reality from the legends of an iconic figure, particularly if that figure was already surrounded by myth and legend in his own lifetime, as was Daniel Boone. Still, poet and novelist Morgan has made a valiant effort in his absorbing and stirring chronicle of the great frontiersman. He strips away some of the most blatant falsehoods about his subject's life. Boone did not discover Kentucky or the Cumberland Gap, and he was neither an Indian-lover nor a particularly eager Indian fighter. Although the reality of Boone's life and character is more complicated than the mythology, he still emerges here as a fascinating, admirable, and even noble character. He was, in fact, instrumental in the opening of the trans-Appalachian West before the Revolution and fought in both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. When necessary, he fought Indians, but he also established friendships with many tribal chiefs. He settled in Missouri before it was absorbed by the U.S. and died there at the age of 86. Throughout his life, he displayed an adventurous and generous spirit that, combined with a tough intelligence, make him well worth the accolades he continues to receive. This outstanding biography will be ideal for general readers."--"Freeman, Jay" Copyright 2007 Booklist
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Daniel Boone didn't wear a coonskin cap. He liked to read. He wasn't particularly murderous. So much for American myths. Morgan (Brave Enemies, 2003, etc.) risks being overshadowed by John Mack Faragher's Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (1992), which is much stronger, especially on Boone's significance as a Rousseauvian man of nature. Yet Morgan is an able storyteller with a fine appreciation for Boone as a man of action—and a man of his times. Boone entered history as one of the teamsters accompanying General Edward Braddock's ill-fated campaign to attack the French in Ohio, which ended in a battle that catapulted another American on the scene, George Washington, to fame. The British were routed. "To save himself," writes Morgan, "young Boone cut his horses loose and rode after the fleeing troops." It would not be the last time that Boone would decide that withdrawal was the better part of valor, a strategic sensibility that saved his neck on the Kentucky frontier, where he became a skilled diplomat working among many Indian nations while earning a fair income gathering ginseng. Boone had solid leadership skills, as commemorated in George Caleb Bingham's iconic portrait of Boone leading wary settlers through the Cumberland Gap. Though a frontiersman suspicious of customary authority, he also commanded respect among the military. Court-martialed after a disastrous battle against the British and their Shawnee allies during the Revolutionary War, Boone emerged both exonerated and promoted. (To spite his accuser, though, he moved out of the town named for him, Boonesborough.) He would later be accused of dishonest surveying and other misdemeanors, charges that, Morgan writes, had some basis in carelessness but not in malice. Such dealings with his fellow Americans, however, inclined Boone not to have much to do with them—and thus he pressed ever onward, away from their smoking chimneys over a long lifetime. A welcome re-evaluation of an American legend. Copyright ŠKirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Morgan's 2000 novel, Gap Creek, was both a New York Times best seller and an Oprah Book Club selection. Here, he tackles a difficult and complex subject-American frontier legend Daniel Boone-with tact, detailed scholarship, and even a bit of poetry. Narrator James Jenner (The Plague) maintains a steady pace throughout, making this lively work all the more interesting. This title will doubtless find its place as a classic about early American history. Highly recommended. [The Algonquin hc received a starred review, LJ 7/07.-Ed.]-Scott R. DiMarco, Mansfield Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Choice
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Since Daniel Boone belongs in the pantheon of US heroes and his story always seems beclouded with myth and confusion, a reassessment of his life every decade or so is welcome. Morgan's definitive study critiques other biographies of Boone and affords a wider awareness of Boone's trans-Appalachian frontier. Morgan (Cornell) aims at fathoming Boone's psychological makeup but is unable to explain the whimsical traits. The author also could have fleshed out more of Boone's contacts with major frontier figures, such as Simon Kenton and Blackfish. One small annoyance is the frequent digressions, such as Balzac's view on getting into debt. Morgan notes Boone's many ventures, but he correctly depicts Boone first and last as a woodsman. While this book is an engrossing narrative, the author has some difficulty in sustaining continuity in presenting the dramatic scene, e.g., the siege of the Kentucky stations and the Battle of Blue Licks. By and large, however, this book is an important update of the Boone legend and reevaluation of Boone's significance in US history and literature. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, public libraries, and all academic levels/libraries. H. M. Ward emeritus, University of Richmond
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Poet and novelist Morgan (English, Cornell Univ.; Gap Creek) steps away from his historical fiction to provide a beautifully written biography of American scout Daniel Boone as a frontier Moses, leading his people over the western mountains to the rich promised lands of Kentucky. Boone's personal motivations are explored by emphasizing his Quaker family roots-and the later influence of Masonry-within the larger context of a frontier society swirling with political revolution and wilderness wars that eventually displaced many of the American Indian nations with which Boone sympathized. His treatment of Boone attempts a more personalized and popular view than John Mack Faragher's classic Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer yet is still extensively footnoted. Morgan ends by examining how Boone's legend as a heroic scout influenced writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and James Fenimore Cooper, among many others. Strongly recommended for academic, public, and high school libraries with U.S. history collections.-Nathan E. Bender, Univ. of Idaho, Moscow (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
