Life and Times of Colonel Daniel Boone; comprising History of the Early Settlement of Kentucky; to which is added, Colonel Boone's Autobiography Complete, as dictated to John Filson, and published in 1784

Philadelphia: G.G. Evans. Good. 1859. First Edition. Hardcover. (dark green buckram, no dust jacket; embossed decorative borders on both covers, gilt decoration, title and publisher's name on spine) [general overall wear, bumping/fraying to all corners, heavy foxing to several pages in front and rear of book and to edge of text block, contemporary owner's signature on front endpaper (see Notes)]. (Lives of Heroes and Hunters) Series (engravings) One of a number of biographies of Boone (1734-1820) that began appearing pretty regularly after his death, and by the end of the 19th century had solidified his image as a larger-than-life folk hero. The "Autobiography" portion of the text occupies pp. 333-351, and is followed by a 22-page catalogue of the publisher's other offerings. (Note that the "Lives of Heroes and Hunters" series designation appears only the spine of the book; the aforementioned catalogue doesn't mention it, although it does advertise more than a dozen biographies of men who could certainly fit under that rubric.) There were a number of later editions of Hartley's biography (with variant titles) issued by other publishers, but this would appear to be the earliest printing of the first (G.G. Evans) edition, issued very late in 1859. (The handful of contemporary notices I could find were dated in November; Evans put out another printing in 1860.) NOTE also that the undated ownership signature on the front endpaper reads "Thomas Beer / Bucyrus / Ohio"; I have no way of knowing if this might have been the American writer of the same name (1889-1940), the author of numerous short stories, biographies and novels -- although that fellow was born in Iowa and does not appear to have ever lived in the small city of Bucyrus, Ohio. . (Inventory #: 29691)