A Sketch of the Life and Character of Daniel Boone

Rating:
Summary: An Elegent Gem!--Kentucky Reader
Review: Houston's Boone is a diminutive book but one brimming with contemporary insights plus editor's annotations into frontier life featuring new stuff on Boone, hide tanning, buffalo, Indians, and early hunter anecdotes. An elegent little book with a gorgeous jacket, a highly collectable bit of old-time Kentuckiana.

Rating:
Summary: Rare piece of Americana!--Western Writers of America
Review: Murray State University (Kentucky) history professor Ted Franklin Belue discovered the only known copy of Peter Houston's manuscript about his personal recollections of the famous frontiersman, Daniel Boone, in the Lyman C. Draper papers at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in 1990. Written in the 1840s by a friend and neighbor of Boone's, the original manuscript was stolen from the author's grandson in 1887, but luckily for future historians, the grandson had, mere weeks before the theft, mailed a copy of the lengthy work to the prolific historian, Lyman Draper. Belue has done a masterful job in presenting this rare piece of Americana to the reading public. Replete with extensive annotations and notes, a pictorial section, and an impressive bibliography, the book goes a long way in shedding light on everyday times on America's first western frontier during the 1770s and 1780s. For those of WWA's membership who believe, as I do, that "western" writing is defined as that which encompasses the entire American frontier experience, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific shores, this book will provide several hours of interesting reading, indeed.--Jim Crutchfield, Managing Editor, Roundup Magazine April 1998, Western Writers of America

Rating:
Summary: Omits Vital Information
Review: This book was average.Houston leaves out an important detail in that he says nothing about young Daniel Boone's part as a teamster in the Braddock Expedition to take Ft.Duquesne during the French and Indian War in 1755.While Boone did not play a significant role during the battle(by his own admission he cut loose the horses and took off shortly after coming under fire from the French and Indians)he was one of many famous personalities who were present that day.More importantly,he met one John Finley during this expedition who told Boone about the wild and unsettled lands that he had traveled to on the frontier in what is now Kentuckey.