Includes:
•Charles River Editors’ original biography of Daniel Boone
•Daniel Boone’s autobiography
•Daniel Boone the Pioneer of Kentucky by John S.C. Abbott
•Life and Times of Colonel Daniel Boone by Cecil B. Hartley
•The First White Man of the West by Timothy Flint
"Many heroic actions and chivalrous adventures are related of me which exist only in the regions of fancy. With me the world has taken great liberties, and yet I have been but a common man." – Daniel Boone
The Wild West and the frontier have long held a special place in the narrative of American history, and all of the legends and folk heroes who lived in the 19th century owe their reputation to the original American frontier folk hero, Daniel Boone. Boone was literally a trailblazer: the legendary pioneer established his Wilderness Road by striking west into present-day Kentucky and establishing Boonesborough, one of the earliest white settlements west of the Appalachians. Hundreds of thousands of settlers would follow his path by the end of the 18th century.
While that was an important and proud legacy for the former Revolutionary War militiaman and Virginia State Assemblyman, Boone became known for the outsized tales and adventures associated with his foray into the frontier. Far and wide, people spoke of Boone’s expert marksmanship, his encounters with wild bears, and his hardscrabble frontier life, making him a living legend and the prototypical Western frontier folk hero in America. All of it bewildered and bemused the actual man himself, whose own words about his affinity for the backwoods made him sound more like Henry David Thoreau than anything else. Boone once noted, “Situated, many hundred miles from our families in the howling wilderness, I believe few would have equally enjoyed the happiness we experienced. I often observed to my brother, You see now how little nature requires to be satisfied. Felicity, the companion of content, is rather found in our own breasts than in the enjoyment of external things…”
Of course, that’s how nobody has chosen to remember Daniel Boone, and the legends and lore have long outstripped the man himself. The legend of Daniel Boone helped him become an inspiration and model for Americans on the frontier, while also serving to make him the embodiment of the American pioneer overseas. Lord Byron even mentions Boone in his classic Don Juan (Of the great names which in our faces stare,/The General Boon, back-woodsman of Kentucky/Was happiest amongst mortals any where;/For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he/Enjoyed the lonely vigorous, harmless days/ Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze.”)
The Ultimate Daniel Boone Collection chronicles the life of the frontier hero, and the legends and mythmaking that have shaped his legacy, with an original biography by Charles River Editors, Boone’s autobiography, and three other classic biographies by John Abbott, Cecil Hartley and Timothy Flint. This collection also includes a Table of Contents and pictures.
