David Crockett: The Man and the Legend

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.