King of the Wild Frontier: An Autobiography by Davy Crockett (Dover Books on Americana)

Simple reprint of public domain copy. Perfect for research or class.

We read this to my 9- and 11-y/o kids in the car while driving through Kentucky & WV. Hearing his exploits in Crockett's own voice, while in the places they happened, was fascinating. The language and expressions are sometimes old-fashioned, but still understandable to the modern ear. A really interesting and accessible read-aloud for young ones and older folks alike.

Pretty simple, but I guess he wrote it.

Although dictated to a not very good writer it is the only narration that we have from Crockett himself. For that it is historically interesting and he’s an engaging fellow

Advertised as an unabridged republication of the original 1834 publication "A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett," this Dover version is anything but. While reading it, some segues between chapters seemed curious to me; they just did not quite flow or make sense. I shrugged these off as Crockett's own apparent shortcomings in writing. So, too, the end of this republication seemed to me very abrupt; Crockett "finishes" his autobiography by stating that he began to turn his attention towards the upcoming Congressional election, and then... nothing. The end. Really?Struck by this, I investigated further. I found a true, unabridged version of Crockett's autobiography through Google Books, and comparing the two publications I was able to discern that this Dover republication is heavily edited. On pages 88-89 for example, where it switches from Chapter 9 to Chapter 10, fifteen pages of the original are inexplicably absent. These pages deal with some of Crockett's earliest political enterprises and are well worth reading, which only makes it that much more disappointing that Dover chopped up its version. Furthermore, there is an additional chapter at the end of the book that appropriately concludes it, and Dover cut that out as well.I was so incensed when I discovered Dover had edited Crockett's autobiography and tried to pass it off as an unabridged republication of the original that I contacted the publishing company. I have yet to hear back from a Dover representative, but I will be updating my review if I receive a response. In the meantime, I urge anyone in search of Davy Crockett's autobiography to bypass this version and look elsewhere. The original is 211 pages long; while this Dover version contains more words per page than the original, at 128 pages it is still missing a significant amount of material. I can verify that at least twenty-five pages are absent. More likely, that number is nearer to forty. Don't waste your time here- you're only getting part of the story.**EDIT: I heard back from Dover Publications a few weeks ago, and through further Crockett research I have pieced together exactly what is going on with this book. According to Dover, this edition of Crockett's autobiography is indeed an unabridged version of the 1834 publication "A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett" and never claimed to be anything else. Why the missing pages, then? Apparently the original publisher removed material back in 1834 both to make the book more accessible to the public and to make Crockett more appealing as a political candidate who would shortly face reelection. Crockett himself was upset with his publishers for editing his original manuscript, but the success of the "Narrative" quickly overshadowed his disappointment. As stated above, the unedited original version of Crockett's narrative (as he intended it to be read) is available for free on Google Books. For further reading about the editing of this 1834 republication, see  Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis  by William C. Davis, pages 318-326, 330-332.

It was just fun to read and learn about my home area in disbelief of the creatures and natives that no longer range anywhere near here

In his own words... Enjoyed the read. Ends before he became a political figure.

I love this book. this books tells you all about his adventure Davy Crocket way back early days!I enjoy reading this book.

Fantastic but a bit too short

GOOD