Book Description

Wild Western Scenes is a vivid and exciting retelling of adventures set in the Old West of the 19th century, with the pioneer adventurer Daniel Boone a prominent character. This edition includes the sixteen original illustrations. Many of the stories in this narrative by J. B. Jones are adapted from the real pioneering and frontier escapades of the famous Daniel Boone. We are presented with a series of encounters - some exciting, some amusing, some dangerous - that Boone and his company had whilst ranging in the wildernesses of North America. The intrepid explorers find themselves up against the natural world as they hunt and forage to survive. Suspicious Native Americans, dishonest fellow pioneers, dangerous wild animals, and an untamed and uncharted landscape all pose dangers to the group. Jones, writing in the 19th century, endeavors to produce accurate dialogue - while archaic to the modern ear, such words help readers understand how people communicated long ago. We witness a time which was in many ways savage, with violence often the first recourse. Yet it was also a time of adventure and utter freedom: a vast landscape stretched before explorers such as Daniel Boone, and he duly became an embodiment of the bold American spirit. Though partly fictionalized, these tales each contain more than a grain of truth; this serves to increase their appeal. Though this book attained great fame from the mid-19th to the early 20th century, the author at first had trouble getting it published. The manuscript was declined by a British publisher, and so Jones became an early example of a self-publisher. The book was wildly and went through many editions: this reprint is based on a revised, illustrated text of 1859.