" The embodiment of the American hero, the man of action, the pathfinder, Daniel Boone represents the great adventure of his age -- the westward movement of the American people. Daniel Boone: An American Life brings together over thirty years of research in an extraordinary biography of the quintessential pioneer. Based on primary sources, the book depicts Boone through the eyes of those who knew him and within the historical contexts of his eighty-six years. The story of Daniel Boone offers new insights into the turbulent birth and growth of the nation and demonstrates why the frontier forms such a significant part of the American experience.

The embodiment of the American hero, Daniel Boone personifies the great adventure of his age - the westward movement of the American people. The prototype for the frontiersman, he was a multifaceted individual who shaped and was driven by the complex forces of this dynamic period in history. Daniel Boone: An American Life brings together over thirty years of research in this extraordinary biography. Based on primary sources, the book depicts Boone through the eyes of those who knew him and within the historical contexts of his eighty-six years. Boone's story offers new insights into the turbulent birth of the nation and demonstrates why the frontier forms such a significant part of the American experience.

Davy Crockett has been America's best-known folk hero for at least 160 years. This informed biography by James Atkins Shackford first appeared in 1956, at the height of the television-inspired Crockett craze. As Michael Lofaro notes in his introduction, "Shackford faced the monumental task of rescuing a nearly unknown David Crockett from the obscurity caused by the popularity of the earlier legendary Davys and deepened by Disney." He succeeded memorably, restoring David Crockett of Tennessee, a true pioneer and colorful figure even without romantic trappings.

In his introduction to this edition of "Daniel Boone: Master of the Wilderness," Michael A. Lofaro, a professor of English at the University of Tennessee and the author of "The Life and Adventures of Daniel Boone," assesses John Bakeless's achievement: "After fifty years his is still the standard by which all other biographies of the frontiersman are judged."