(2011)Biography of one of the greatest legends in American History. But as Wallis tells it he was also just a man with faults and dreams like most men of the frontier. He could not stay out of debt as he pursued his wanderlust by acquiring land as he moved towards the west and Texas. He also was a very political man serving 3 terms in Congress with aspirations of becoming president, which seemed very possible at one time until his hatrid of Andrew Jackson brought him down. Very good book.(Amazon user review) R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA)If you are as old as I am, you may not be able to think of David Crockett without changing his name to the nickname Davy, and having done that, you cannot help hearing the theme song from his famous Disney television show, and reflecting how he was "born on a mountaintop in Tennessee" and "kilt him a b'ar when he was only three." Neither of those things actually happened, but nothing seemed impossible for the hero who, the song informed us in a subsequent verse, also "patched up the crack in the Liberty Bell." It wasn't just little boys in the fifties who adored Davy; it was the whole nation, and his fans had been building his legend even during his lifetime. In fact, he wrote in the autobiography that was his real claim to distinction that he could not understand all the fuss: "Go where I will, everybody seems anxious to get a peep at me... Therefore, there must be something in me, or about me, that attracts attention, which is even mysterious to myself." Looking seriously at the life and enjoying the legend is the point of _David Crockett: The Lion of the West_ (Norton) by Michael Wallis, who must be the only history writer who is also credited with being a cartoon voice (he speaks the Sheriff's part in _Cars_.) The seriousness does not get in the way; Crockett had an exciting life, and while he may not be as perfect a hero as the legends claim, this is a rollicking story, well told, with many quotations from Crockett's own writings. Crockett was born in 1786, not in Tennessee but in part of North Carolina that was to become Tennessee. He ran away from home when he was thirteen and was gone three years. He worked for various countrymen, including a Quaker farmer who was to teach him to read and write. (It is in contrast with his backwoods image that although he had limited education, he enjoyed reading Ovid and Shakespeare.) He became an entertaining talker, adept at making colorful stories often at his own expense using backwoodsman's slang. Those who took him for a bumpkin were very much mistaken. His fellow citizens made him a justice of the peace, and they liked his work. He was to go on to be a member of the Tennessee legislature and a member of the United States Congress. He did not, as is commonly thought, wear his buckskins and his coonskin cap around Washington; in fact, he seldom wore a coonskin cap at any time, despite the fad for them in the Crockett boom of the 1950s. A man whose father was a senator friend of Crockett's remembered him as "pleasant, courteous, and interesting," and that "I never saw him attired in a garb that could be regarded as differing from that worn by a gentleman of his day - never in coonskin cap or hunting shirt." (He also never called himself "Davy" and never signed his name that way.) A character impersonating Crockett on the stage made a sensation, and Crockett's autobiography had gone on to be a bestseller. The book recounts his adventures in battles against the Indians and against bears and other wildlife. People could read the book and get the idea that Crockett was a rambling man always ready to get up and move on, and this was certainly the case. Readers might not have realized that Crockett had little ties to his two successive wives or to his children and that what an observer called his "itchy feet" was not only due to his eagerness to get into the wilds and start bringing in game, but also to get somewhere new where his creditors could not find him. When he was voted out of office, he did just what he told voters he was going to do: "You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas." In Tennessee, deserted cabins would be marked with "GTT" or "Gone to Texas," a final refuge for debtors like Crockett, or for desperadoes. He did not strike out to battle the Mexicans for liberty as John Wayne would portray him; he did not know what the Alamo was when he set out. Once in Texas, he took an oath to the Provisional Government of Texas, in exchange for being given land, and he wound up in San Antonio, at the Alamo, as surprised as everyone else there that the Mexicans were to make a siege in 1836. No one really knows how he died; in the movies, he goes down fighting, but Wallis sides with the story that he was simply taken prisoner and executed. The real life David Crockett is nearly as much fun to read about as his legend Davy. This is a boisterous tale, and Wallis's lively details make it a pleasure to read. Crockett had an enormous store of homespun intelligence and bravery, and plenty of adventures that made a foundation for a legend that is never going to die. That he was a bit of a rascal, that he was enthusiastic about whiskey, that he never did make ends meet, that he never was a reliable family man - these all just bring the legend to real life.

A well written and researched biography of this American icon. The writer's style is straightforward and engaging. As a result, one learns that the reality is far more interesting than the myth of Davey Crockett. A true frontier spirit living in a very different time and place, and someone worth learning more about.

My only minor complaint is that occasionally the author moralizes about social issues of the day that adds nothing to an understanding of the man or his times. Nonetheless, highly recommended. ( )

"Print the legend," goes the famous line from "The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance." And the same could be said about David Crockett.

Like the author, I was obsessed with all things Davy Crockett as a child, due to the Disney TV portrayal of him (in the person of Fess Parker). But here's the truth about Crockett: he wasn't born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, nor did he kill himself a "bar" when he was only 3. He had no sidekick naked George. There was no adventure with Mike Fink and the river boatmen. He didn't refer to himself as "Davy." He didn't even wear a coonskin cap, for heaven's sake (except to glean popularity with the crowds)!

On the other hand, here is what he was: a profligate hunter (he killed hundreds of bears in his lifetime, and who knows how many other creatures). A pretty poor politician. While a loner, someone who loved the adulation of crowds. A poor money-manager. A slave owner. Neglectful of his wife and family.

Though not to simplify--though Crockett was active in the Creek Indian War, he was adamantly opposed to Andrew Jackson's displacement of Indians from the eastern states to west of the Mississippi, which led to the Trail of Tears. Crockett denounced this as an atrocity, and paid dearly for it because of the wrath of Jackson.

History tends to temper heroes. This book does that "Davy" Crockett. ( )

This is an interesting, detailed recounting of the life of David Crockett. It dispels many myths and legends about his life. ( )