Summary
[Robert Morgan] accomplishes a great feat in carving the facts out of a vast assemblage of rumors and legend, always certain to tell particular stories with a grain of salt, providing varying accounts when available, or simply explaining the rumors-just in case anyone thought Boone was as tall (or as fictional) as Paul Bunyan. I laughed at the opening sentences of the book: "Forget the coonskin cap; he never wore one. [Daniel Boone] thought coonskin caps uncouth, heavy, and uncomfortable. He always wore a beaver felt hat" To many modern readers, the difference between beaver felt and coonskin seems fairly negligible, and we may marvel at the notion of beaver felt being considered couth-but the material of Boone's hat gets at the crux of the issue of how difficult it can be to separate the legend from the fart for a man who was a legend in his own time. In fact, Morgan tells us that the first published biography of Boone resembled Robinson Crusoe more than a work of history.
Morgan's devotion to Boone and his achievement in telling "the real story" does not come without some drawbacks, however. Morgan portrays a man who would choose to be a peacekeeper, a man who learned a lot about hunting and the land from Native American culture, a man who was in fact "adopted" by the chief of the Shawnees at one point in his life. But when a reader expects to hear the legends of Boone's heroism, particularly those in battle, Morgan comes up with a rather weak, ambivalent term: "reluctant Indian fighter"-an attempt at nuance that simply sounds awkward. But, in the end, this reluctance seems genuine-Morgan recounts many instances of Boone's proclivity for clever stalling and negotiation tactics to avoid any bloodshed during war. Even when describing the end of Boone's life, Morgan persuasively characterizes the explorer's fondness for Native Americans and his resentment toward white businessmen and lawyers after a long life of incurring debt and getting hoodwinked out of land. The naturalist respects an ambush in the woods more than an ambush of official documents.See the full content of this document
Extract
Slouching Toward Wal-Mart
Slouching toward Wal-Mart A nostalgic, flawed Daniel Boone in Robert Morgan's biography BY JAIMEE HILLS BOONE: A BIOGRAPHY BY ROBERT MORGAN Algonquin Books, 538 pp.
If you're feeling haunted by the specters of peak oil and global warming, you might enjoy a glance back to the beginning of America in Robert Morgan's...See the full content of this document
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