The Hunters of Kentucky: A Narrative History of America's First Far West, 1750-1792

See Larger Image	Manufacturer: Stackpole Books Written By: Ted Franklin Belue Average Customer Rating:


Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 976.902 EAN: 9780811708838 ISBN: 0811708837 Label: Stackpole Books Manufacturer: Stackpole Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 320 Publication Date: 2003-04-01 Publisher: Stackpole Books Studio: Stackpole Books
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Editorial Reviews: "The Hunters of Kentucky" covers a wide range of frontier existence, from daily life and survival to wars, exploits, and even flora and fauna. The pioneers and their lives are profiled in biographical sketches, giving a rich sampling of the personalities involved in the United States' westward expansion. Ted Franklin Belue's colourful, vivid prose brings these long-forgotten frontiersmen to life.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: needs a good editing Comment: This book is packed with information about early settlers and explorers in Kentucky, but that's THE problem, too. Here's a sentence (on p. 51) that illustrates the vast amount of information he tries to pack in ONE sentence: "This Shawnee capital had its origins in 1729, the year Chillicothes and Thawikilas--weary of William Penn's lying sons and the rum trade, vanishing game, diminishing land, a buzzel of towns, and haughty Iroquois chiefs who castrated the Leni-Lenapis' manhood, deeming them 'Petticoat Indians'--began a Algonquin hajj to their homeland." Each phrase could have been an entire sentence, and then each sentence could have been explained better [i.e. William Penn's lying sons never appeared in the rest of the book, yet their behavior was apparently significant enough to run off the Indians]. You need to have plenty of patience and background knowledge to wade through this. That's a shame, because there probably is much information after the reader mentally sorts out the chaff from the wheat. Customer Rating: Summary: From Smoke and Fire News Sept 3, 2003 by Bob Holden Comment: Ted Franklin Belue knows well the colorful history of the Trans-Appalachian region, a fact that is fully evident in his recently published The Hunters of Kentucky, (Stackpole Books, 315 pages, $29.95). This excellent book will be of interest to a wide spectrum of readers. Those not familiar with the Kentucky backcountry will learn a lot. Those already knowledgeable about the facts will come away with a heightened appreciation for the unique character of the Kentucky frontier. Belue's approach differs from the usual form of narrative employed by most historians. Rather than include all the players and events in the drama, the author has selected certain personalities and subjects to emphasize, weaving an intriguing tapestry of the Kentucky frontier-in effect a backwoods mood piece. By employing this technique, Belue exhibits a much more distinctive style of writing than was evident in his equally valuable earlier book, The Long Hunt. Following a prologue, The Hunters of Kentucky is divided into ten chapters. Each chapter is followed by a shorter exposition, termed an interlude. Among the major figures featured are Dr. Thomas Walker, Christopher Gist, Thomas Bullitt, Daniel Boone, Nicholas Cresswell, Daniel Trabue, James Estill, Pompey, George Michael Bedinger, and Spencer Records. Subjects covered include exploration, surveying, warfare, buffalo, clothing, long hunters, and weapons. A helpful chronology appears in an appendix. The maps and illustrations are first-rate . One of the most interesting sections of The Hunters of Kentucky describes how the long rifle came to be identified specifically with Kentucky. When readers finish this segment, they will feel as if they were actually in the New Orleans audience as Noah Ludlow first sang the newly written ballad, "The Hunters of Kentucky" one night in May 1822. Only seven years earlier, Kentuckians had joined Andrew Jackson's other backwoodsmen to devastatingly defeat the British forces attempting to invade New Orleans. Many of the half-drunken frontier rivermen in the audience that May evening had been with Jackson at that incredible triumph, which became instant hallowed history. Dressed in a hastily acquired backwoodsman's outfit, with a long rifle by his side, Ludlow launched into the first verse ending with "O Kentucky, the Hunters of Kentucky; O Kentucky, the hunters of Kentucky!" The crowd showed great excitement. As he finished the second verse that referred to Kentuckians as a "hardy freeborn race" and "alligator horses," the audience was losing control. Ludlow sang the third verse, "But Jackson he was wide-awake, And wasn't scared at trifles, For well he knew what aim we'd take With our Kentucky rifles; So he marched us down to Cypress Swamp, The ground was low and mucky, There stood John Bull in martial pomp, But here was old Kentucky." Ludlow immediately dropped to one knee, leveled his rifle, and took imaginary aim. Then it happened. Pandemonium reigned. The ballad, "The Hunters of Kentucky," had captured the essence of the Kentucky backwoods ethos. Two centuries later Belue has done it again with his book, The Hunters of Kentucky. Customer Rating: Summary: Go slow, enjoy it like vintage vine, Belue is in control Comment: First, this is a singularly different American frontier book than any ofher KY book out there, bar none. Belue takes an inconoclastic approach, much no doubt to the dismay of pendant critics/academics who revel in the predictable, the mundain, the banal, prosaic, lockstep line up with the 18th century living-histry clones bedecked in walnut dyed. Belue writes like a vigorous Abbey, Twain (see Interlude V), and Mattheissen, all though distilled and rendered through Belue's rather novel sense pf vision. Like any artist, he writes for the grave, knowing its own inherent good, not giving a damn though if anyone agrees. Often every paragraph takes the form of a sonnet, with impressive voice switches between Belue's chapters and interludes. Belue is a concise, eonomic writer and purely American--pure bones, sinew, muscle, sans fat and gristle, but roughed up prose where needs be --and so his writing (rather retro, and I mean that in a good +way)--hearkens more to the old masters (Steinbeck, EH), rather than the deconstructionist ideologes currently in vogue that can criticize EH with impunity, but can't write three words sequentially like him. But Belue can and does so routinely. Customer Rating: Summary: A Rich History Of Kentucky! Comment: Get ready to head down the trail towards to cane breaks! Ted Belue's 4th offering "The Hunters Of Kentucky" will set you directly in the middle of the wilds of that unexplored hunters paradise called KANTA-KE! Belue's "Hunters" is a fantastic read, chronicling the early exploration of Kentucky, including the original native inhabitants, gentlemen explorers, itinerant hunters, and the early settlers who dared to make this wooded eden their home. Belue neatly and expertly seperates mythic fact and romance from meaty fact, delivering up the rich and detailed history of the Kanta-Ke territory. From the migration of the "Shawanoe" peoplesto the impact of the beaver wars between the French & English as they grapple control of a continent away from the Spanish and Dutch. Included are narratives and biographic sketches of some of the early explorers, traders and hunters. Follow Dr, Thomas Walkers four month, 1750 exploration of the Kentucky country, as well as Christopher Gist's and Nicholas Cresswell's tour of the of the Kentucky lands. Belue details the incurssion of the of the buckskin clad "shirtmen" who came following the red deer, foreshadowing the first tendrils of an unstoppable tide of settlers, and the resultant decades of war and strife between the anglo invaders and the native peoples, including the brutal aftermath of frontier warfare and an end to a way of life for the native peoples. Belue weaves a rich colorful tapestry of mostly forgotten frontier personalities including Andrew Montour, Monk Estill and pompey the black Shawnee, as well as the more well known personalities of Boone, Kenton, Girty and others. "Hunters Of Kentucky" is lavishly illustrated with photos and art, and is set off by an extensive appendix and chronology of events. In the end, "Hunters of Kentucky" will definately leave you wanting more. A must have book!< Customer Rating: Summary: A curious, novel approach...but one that works! Comment: I am far more used to academic works and prefer them, rarely read fiction and have little use for "creative" esoteric historial approaches offered by trade presses, wanting the real thing, not its 2nd cousin, nor some romanticized faldoral. Well...on a hunch I bought this HUNTERS OF KY after seeing long-haired, bolo-tyed Belue the author on THE HISTORY CHANNEL, and bought HUNTERS not so much of his tv delivery, which was a little rambling though often jocular and witty--mostly due to his inexperience, one might think, giving him the benefit of the doubt--but because of the strength of such venerable subject matter. Well, I have no idea who TFB is, but he is, first, one hell of a writer (yet undiscovered, and will of course most likely remain that way); and, second, after twice reading HUNTERS concur with my fellow reviewers that his is a singular talent exhibiting scholarship blended with literary art, and, finally, his book a fine book that takes a reader out of the classroom and into the woods. Heartily commended and a signal contribution to the Kentucky frontier destined to stand the test of time. His research and interpretion thereof,incidentally, is impeccable, though some of the words he uses I can't find in the dictionary. If you are a student of pre-statehood Kentucky, buy this book, and his first three titles. Dr. Ed Clark More Reviews