Michael Wallis (1) (1945–)

(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.… (plus d'informations)

This book was exactly what I hoped it would be, a rigorously researched, meticulously detailed, and well written account of the whole history of the Donner Party. I started this book after getting about halfway through History of the Donner Party by C.F. McGlashan. This book, published by a journalist in 1880, no doubt paved the way for latter books on the subject, however, the writing reads like what I imagine 1880’s tabloids or penny dreadfuls, full of overwrought melodrama in a historical account that scarcely needs the embellishment. Added to this, the McGlashan book has some odd passages to say the least, for instance, when the forward party decide to kill their native American guides from Fort Sutter (the only time in the whole ordeal humans were killed for food) the writer describes the guides docile souls, grateful for being killed. While this is certainly a possibility it seems a remote one but the author endorses it wholeheartedly.

Michael Wallis’s book suffers from none of these short comings. In addition to ample footnotes and background research, Wallis adds historical context to the Donner Story, placing it squarely in the age of American expansionism and Manifest Destiny. The writer takes us through the whole thing, starting off with small biographies of key figures back east and their decision to move west, following them along the trail and through Hastings cut off, the ordeal at Donner Lake and the Sierras, and afterwards when the survivors went on to live their lives.



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While there are some fascinating passages in this book, ultimately I could not recommend it for three reasons.
First, the author has included a ridiculous amount of detail that has very little to do with Charles "Pretty Boy" (aka Choc) Floyd. Page upon page upon page about the Civil War, for example, that most readers already know and that are not particularly relevant to Charley Floyd (it is not, for example, as though everyone in his family declared: "We must carry on the wild ways of our ancestors." Most members of the Floyd family were ordinary citizens.) Then came the lengthy details about people Charley may have met once, a town he passed through, a law enforcement official who was on his trail. Just too, too much information we did not want.
Second is the author's tendency to tell us what people were thinking and feeling - when how could he possibly know? ("There was a touch of delicious insanity in them [Charley and his girlfriend, Ruby] that only other lovers could recognize. Folks saw it in their eyes when Choc and Ruby, grassstained and flushed, walked down the paths that fed into the thickets and weeds out toward the cemetery. They saw it when Choc galloped on a horse down the road through Akins with Ruby perched behind him. They were oblivious to the graver concerns of the world." "Choc hardly blinked when he heard the judge say: 'I hereby sentence you to five years in the state penitentiary at Jefferson City, Missouri.' Afterward, though, when he was being shuffled back to his cell, the judge's words finally soaked in, and Choc got a lump in his throat the size of of one of Maggie Hardgrave's good biscuits." "Charley found that the penitentiary brought out the worst in men.")
Finally, I really tired of the similies and the down-home, aw-shucks kind of writing at times that was, I guess, supposed to help me feel like I was sitting there having a strong cup of coffee with the Floyd clan.
In the end, I was frustrated that I never felt I came to know what motivated Pretty Boy Floyd. He was poor and hated it - he was hardly alone in the Depression. He wanted nice stuff; so did many people, and they never became outlaws.
The third half of the book is by far the best, and for that reason I gave three stars to this review. But I have to believe a more insightful, compelling biography of Pretty Boy Floyd is needed.… (plus d'informations)