- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
Steeped in legend, shrouded in folklore, the real David Crockett, American frontiersman and cultural icon, finally emerges in this engrossing biography.
His name was David Crockett. He never signed his name any other way, but popular culture transformed his memory into "Davy Crockett," and Hollywood gave him a raccoon hat he hardly ever wore. Best-selling historian Michael Wallis casts a fresh look at the frontiersman, storyteller, and politician behind these legendary stories. Born into a humble Tennessee family in 1786, Crockett never "killed him a b'ar" when he was only three. But he did cut a huge swath across early-nineteenth-century America—as a bear hunter, a frontier explorer, a soldier serving under Andrew Jackson, an unlikely congressman, and, finally, a martyr in his now-controversial death at the Alamo. Wallis's David Crockett is more than a riveting story. It is a revelatory, authoritative biography that separates fact from fiction, providing us with an extraordinary evocation of a true American hero and the rough-and-tumble times in which he lived.
He wasn't born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, and he didn't kill a b'ar when he was only three. Even so, David Crockett was a force of nature, as this fine biography details.
The Scots-Irish son of the American frontier, writes Wallis (Billy the Kid, 2007, etc.), became a legend within his lifetime and "died as a work still very much in progress." Yet much of what we know about Crockett is erroneous, thanks to fictions perpetuated over the course of nearly two centuries. David Crockett—David, not Davy—was indeed an accomplished hunter of bears, having killed more than 100 of them in seven months during 1825–26, as Wallis carefully records. But more than that, he was a frontier entrepreneur who "approached nature as a science and hunting as an art," earning a considerable income supplying furs for a hungry East Coast and European trade. As a politician, an endeavor in which hunting stories were guaranteed to liven up stump speeches, he fell afoul of fellow Tennessean Andrew Jackson early on, opining against several of Jackson's policies and views, particularly on the matter of what to do about the Indians. (Crockett opposed the relocations that would culminate in the Trail of Tears.) It was on the hustings, Wallis writes, that Crockett perfected a kind of bumpkin persona, wearing a buckskin shirt with two big pockets: "In one pocket he kept a big twist of tobacco and in the other a bottle of liquor," either of which worked to sway a voter. When Crockett's card in Washington played out, he left for Texas—whose Anglo secessionists, writes the author, desired freedom from Mexico at least in part because Mexico had outlawed slavery. There Crockett met his end—but not, as Wallis notes, in quite the way Walt Disney would have it.
An excellent study likely to tick off the hagiographers.
Personal Introduction xi
Preface xvii
Part I
1 "Kilt Him a B'ar" 5
2 Born on a Riverbank in Franklin 10
3 The Crocketts Arrive 16
4 Over the Mountain 22
5 On the Nolichucky 29
6 A Boy's Learning 38
7 Coming of Age 45
8 The Odyssey 51
9 Rise Above 59
10 Lovesick 65
11 Polly 71
12 Finley'sGap 78
Part II
13 Kentuck 89
14 "Remember Fort Mims" 98
15 "We Shot Them Like Dogs" 105
16 Riding with Sharp Knife 114
17 "Root Hog or Die" 119
18 Cabin Fever 129
19 A Tincture of Luck 136
Part III
20 "Itchy Footed" 145
21 "Natural Born Sense" 151
22 Gentleman from the Cane 157
23 Land of the Shakes 165
24 In the Eye of a "Harricane" 173
25 A Fool for Luck 182
26 Big Time 191
27 "The Victory Is Ours" 197
Part IV
28 Man without a Party 209
29 Trails of Tears 217
30 Lion of the West 227
31 Bear-Bit Lion 236
32 Go Ahead 244
33 Just a Matter of Time 253
34 Gone to Texas 277
35 Time of the Comet 289
36 El Alamo 307
Acknowledgments Notes 313
Bibliography 351
Index 365
Like the other reviewer, I saw Michael Wallis on the Daily Show and if he writes with the passion with which he speaks, the book will surely be amazing. But that's a HEFTY price that I'm not willing to pay.
4 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Nitevizn
Posted August 14, 2011
I saw the author on the Daily Show. Was going to purchsse until i saw the price. I may breakdown and buy it. If so, it better be good or else i wont take that chance again.
2 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.goflyaWK
Posted October 21, 2011
I'm only half way through, but stopped reading because of a brain tumor operation. can't wait to get going again.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.GoldyMI
Posted September 16, 2011
I found this book to be very well written and the subject matter truly enjoyable. Biographies can be very dry and academic, but Michael Wallis was able to get to the heart of the subject yet in a manner taht kept me turning pages.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.woodworkinggeek
Posted August 22, 2011
Downloaded and read the free sample. Would have purchased for 9.95 but15.95 ... you got to be kidding.
1 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 23, 2012
Ebook s
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted July 25, 2012
Great read, informative.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.6554176
Posted October 18, 2011
Between his Daily Show appearance and the sample, I have already learned a great deal on Boone I knew nothing of and look forward to learning more
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted November 4, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted February 11, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted February 16, 2013
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted February 14, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
Steeped in legend, shrouded in folklore, the real David Crockett, American frontiersman and cultural icon, finally emerges in this engrossing biography.
His name was David Crockett. He never signed his name any other way, but popular culture transformed his memory into "Davy Crockett," and Hollywood gave him a raccoon hat he hardly ever wore. Best-selling historian Michael Wallis casts a fresh look at the frontiersman, storyteller, and politician behind these legendary stories. ...