American Legend : The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett

by Levy, Buddy

• ISBN13: 9780399152788
• ISBN10: 0399152784
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-29
• Publisher: Putnam Adult

Summary

The new popular biography of one of America's most enduring symbols of the Old West. David Crockett was an adventurer, a pioneer, and a tragic hero who died at the Alamo. But the life of the real Crockett has been largely obscured and overshadowed by his mythology, turning this honest, unassuming backwoodsman into a larger-than-life, Disney-fied character in a coonskin cap. In his short but distinguished lifetime, Crockett became America's original celebrity, frequently written about in newspapers and becoming an integral part of the folklore of his day. Opportunistic and clever, and presciently media-savvy, Crockett parlayed his humble origins to his advantage, using his charismatic frontiersman persona to win elections as a three-time U.S. Congressman and even a nomination as presidential candidate. The 1834 publication of his memoir, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett-by Himself, one of the first autobiographies of its kind, went through seven printings, and sent Crockett on the first-ever book tour across the Eastern seaboard. At heart, Crockett was unassuming and down-to-earth, obstinate and independent to a fault. In a beautifully descriptive narrative, American Legendtakes readers from Crockett's childhood hardships, near-death experiences, and meager education through his unlikely rise to Congress. Though his death at the Alamo on March 6, 1836, only added to his considerable fame and notoriety, the common David Crockett emerges here as never before: a rugged individual, an American original, and an enduring symbol of the American frontier.

Author Biography

BUDDY LEVY is a writer and avid outdoorsman who teaches at Washington State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Prologue	1	(4)
Origins	5	(13)
Runaway	18	(6)
The Dutiful Son Becomes a Man	24	(13)
``My Dander Was Up''	37	(22)
``Mounted Gunman''	59	(15)
Trials on the Homefront	74	(19)
``The Gentleman from the Cane''	93	(28)
``Neck or Nothing''	121	(20)
Political Reality	141	(17)
Crockett's Declaration of Independence	158	(22)
``Nimrod Wildfire'' and ``The Lion of the West''	180	(16)
A Bestseller and a Book Tour	196	(16)
``That Fickle, Flirting Goddess'' Fame	212	(18)
Lone Star on the Horizon	230	(20)
``Victory or Death''	250	(18)
Smoke from a Funeral Pyre	268	(20)
Epilogue	288	(11)
Notes	299	(27)
Bibliography	326	(11)
Index	337