Boone: A Biography
By Robert Morgan
538 pages, 6" X 9", hardcover: $29.95
ISBN 978-56512-455-4
Reviewed by Dick Weaver
“Forget the coonskin cap; he never wore one. Daniel Boone thought coonskin caps uncouth, heavy, and uncomfortable.”
Thus novelist and poet Robert Morgan begins his 2007 non-fiction biography of America’s enduring frontiersman. In this chronological telling of Boone’s story, Morgan considers the myths and legends of this deservedly famous man alongside that which is more certainly known about him. Drawing on earlier works by Lyman C. Draper, other biographers, and on the papers and journals of others, Morgan paints a thorough character study of a complex man.
Beginning with the genealogy printed on the inside covers, we learn a great deal about Boone’s Quaker family from Devonshire, England and their move to America. This Quaker upbringing is one of the most important factors bearing on Boone’s whole life on the frontier.
For example, though remembered as a valiant Indian fighter, Boone himself said that he only knew for certain of killing one Indian warrior. He preferred “getting along” and genuinely liked his Shawnee adopted family, who visited him frequently in his later years.
We learn other seeming contradictions: that Boone genuinely loved his wife Rebecca, but was often absent from home for months or years at a time; that his daughter Jemima, said to be his favorite, may have been fathered during one of his absences; that the wilderness he loved to explore he was often surveying for speculators to develop and that he tried but failed to profit from the land in the same way; that the wilderness and wild animals he loved were destroyed by Boone himself and those whom he encouraged to move west; and that the wise woodsman could manage neither money nor property and never truly held on to any estate.
We learn also of the essential decency, honesty, and peaceful nature of the man, as well as of his restless spirit.
In the end, Morgan shows us that Daniel Boone truly deserves to be right where he is in our pantheon of American heroes.
If I were to find any fault with this well-written biography, it would be with Morgan’s penchant for long passages of interpretation and explanation that seek to fit Boone both into the tenor of his times and into the tenor of those reading today who are far-removed from frontier and wilderness. Not that this should not be done—but I think it might have been done more succinctly.
Don’t let my opinion discourage you; this is a fine book. This is definitely a recommended-read for anyone wanting to delve past the Disney stories and the culture myths to learn more about the real American hero, Daniel Boone.
@ 2009 ScurlockPublishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.