Boone: A Biography

A true woodsman, a pioneer and a reluctant icon is Daniel Boone in this informative biography.

Here is the legendary man, who wanted nothing more than to venture into the woods and hunt, fish and find his own peace.

Amid it all, he became a leader, helped set up several towns, made the Cumberland Gap to the West better known, and helped push the western boundary of the United States further west, all before the 1800s.

He paradoxically respected the natives (and was captured and lived as one of them for one stretch), but his actions helped push them out of their own land.

This book offers up a good look at the natives also, not as proto-hippies living at one with the land, but as they really were – sometimes brutal, sometimes big-hearted, show more sometimes cannibalistic. These were real people, not idealized tree-huggers. Humans, not angels.

But that’s the truth of each side – neither entirely pure nor entirely evil. Atrocities on both sides, and sometimes Boone is caught up between two groups.

Through it all, he just wants to live his life and settle his continuing, massive debts. As he finally reaches the end, he finds peace and leaves a tremendous legacy.

Read more of my reviews at Ralphsbooks. Also, follow me on Instagram at @ralphandmainlybooks. show less

Since, I was a kid, I was always found the mythical Daniel Boone fascinating. As I got older, I realized I really didn’t know much about the man and that much of what I heard about him wasn’t even true. I have had this wonderful biography on shelf for a number of years and I am glad I finally plucked it off shelf.
It is an extensive look at the man and I ended up being more impressed by what this man accomplished. Opening up the frontier to the West, with the discovery of the Cumberland Gap and his love for nature and the wilderness is astounding.
If you are like me, and have always wanted to learn more about this legendary figure, this is the perfect bio to pick up. Morgan writes mainly fiction but he sure showed some fine show more craftsmanship with this book. Highly recommended. show less

OMG, how Morgan does go on. This 20-hour audio book could easily have been 15 hours if an editor had managed to restrain Morgan's verbosity. Points raised over and over again, sometimes in anticipation of their place in the timeline, then at their occurrence, are then pointed back to at some later point in the narrative. I particularly had to laugh when Morgan accused some 19th-century biographers of Boone of indulging in purple prose, only to turn to it himself in the very same chapter. Morgan also seems oddly comfortable saying that whether or not some particular story about Boone really occurred does not matter; that it nonetheless reveals such-and-such about Boone's character.
I simply cannot recommend this book, but neither can I show more point you to some alternative. Wikipedia, perhaps?
[Audiobook note: Especially at first, narrator James Jenner seemed to me to take much-too-long pauses between sentences and paragraphs. Later, he either sped up or I had become accustomed to his rhythm.] show less

I read a lot of biographies, partially because I am of the opinion that in many cases, history can best be learned by an examination of the key actors of a period. That is very much the case in this biography of Daniel Boone, the seminal figure in the westward expansion of the United States from 1750-1820. I can safely say that prior to reading this book, my knowledge of Daniel Boone consisted of the Fess Parker television series, and much of that was inaccurate.

I can’t say that the writing was of the caliber of other biographies I’ve read by such authors as David McCollough or Walter Isaacson, but it was certainly readable. In my opinion, the author engages in too much speculation and “mind-reading” in attempting to paint a show more picture of Boone to his liking, instead of presenting the facts and allowing the reader to come to his own conclusions. Hagiography is a common problem when reading biographies, and the author here is no exception. His attempt to equate Boone to such personalities as Henry David Thoreau or Ralph Waldo Emerson and other naturalists of the era are a stretch at best, and unnecessary to appreciate Boone for what he actually was.

All in all, a good but not great biography, but very helpful in learning and understanding the period in question. show less

Boone offers a fairly interesting and comprehensive biography of the legendary American frontiersmen, Daniel Boone. Particularly interesting are the moments when the author digs into Boone's family life with his wife and children. They accompanied the famed hunter and pushed the boundaries of colonial America farther and farther west, into Kentucky and eventually Missouri. An avid hunter who was famous for his good relations with various Indian tribes, Boone seemed in the vanguard when it came to the westward expansion. And in a real sense he was responsible for helping to destroy the wilderness that he cherished. A fact that the author does not gloss over. Boone is an interesting account of one of our most famous early settlers and a show more good jumping off point for those who don't know much about him. show less

Morgan provides a new and brilliant insight to one of America's great pioneers. This well-researched and highly readable and entertaining story of a man whose real life falliblities debunk the mythical superman status that Daniel Boone gained in American folk lore. A wanderer, explorer, and hunter, Boone often left his family for years at a time, hated conflict, and was not over responsible in looking after the more mundane things in life such as defend oneself in lawsuits, paying debts, etc. It is the best biography that I have read about Daniel Boone

Wow, what a book. The scholarship was something to behold. The author cited so many sources it’s really remarkable. I didn’t know a lot about Boone before except the common folk lore. I’m really happy to have read this.