By John Mack Faragher
ISBN 0-8050-1603-1
362 pages, hardcover: $27.50
Reviewed by Kyle L. Carroll
As an avid history reader and Boone enthusiast, I was eager to read Faragher's autobiography on America's best-known frontiersman.
Faragher has sifted through the myths and legends surrounding Daniel and captured the essence of the legendary frontier figure. Sometimes when the dust of a couple hundred years is blown off of our heroes, we find them to be somewhat less than we imagined. Boone comes through this in-depth autobiography, which attempts to separate frontier lore from real life, unscathed. By using dozens of first-person quotes and references, we get to know Daniel and others in the book on a personal level.
Faragher's narrative of the killing of James (Daniel's son) and five others near Powell's Valley is chilling. Accounts of the capture and rescue of Jemima (Boone's daughter) and the Callaway girls, and the description of the siege of Boonesborough are vivid.
The siege of Boone's fort begins with crackling rifle fire from the pioneers inside. The Americans who were negotiating with the Shawnee in a clearing in front of the fort gate began grappling with the Indians. Somehow all break free from the "dredfull skuffil" and make it to the fort with bullets flying from both sides. Faragher writes, "The children of Boonesborough long remembered the first terrifying moments of the battle -- deafening gunfire, the fierce whooping on both sides, the barking and baying of the dogs and the panic of the cattle, horses and other livestock as they raced around the interior of the fort in wild abandon, the storm of dust they raised mixing with the acrid smoke of exploded powder."
In another incident later in his life, Boone has moved to Missouri and is taken on a late fall hunt by two of his sons. Almost 70 and in poor health at the time, Daniel hunts for almost a month along the Gasconade. Trying to get home for Christmas, father and sons attempt to cross the thin ice on the Missouri River. Daniel breaks through the ice in deep water up to his armpits, squirms out and makes it to shore in bitter weather. Nathan builds a fire and the boys "stripped him to the skin and dried him before the fire, then carried him home."
I enjoyed this book and think any reader of frontier history will as well. Published by Henry Holt and Company, Daniel Boone should be available at most bookstores.
@ 2007 ScurlockPublishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.