Davy Crockett

Heroes are not born, they are created. Before Davy Crockett became a legendary hero, he was an extraordinary man. A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee is a vital document of the process of legend-building, capturing Crockett at the critical moment of his ascension into the pantheon of American heroes. The author, well aware of his incipient fame, takes pains throughout his autobiography to conform to a presupposed popular image, while piously claiming to be clarifying a life distorted by the wild tales of others. At the same time-in tales of exploring, hunting, fighting, and politicking-his book established the pattern for the expansive tales yet to be wrought by other popularizers.

Davy Crockett's autobiography is a book of enduring popularity. It has often been reprinted in authentic, abridged, bastardized, and plagiarized editions. It falls within the tradition of American autobiography pioneered by Benjamin Franklin. Like Franklin's work, it is peculiarly American in form and tone, recounting one of the most beloved of our national obsessions: the success story of the self-made man. It is also a literary and folk document, capturing the humor and backcountry dialect eventually enshrined in our highest literary traditions by Mark Twain. The hard-edged, brutal reality of frontier life is recounted with skill and clarity. Crockett's humor, in fact, often appears as a method of dealing with the cruel whims of a harsh environment. Thus the book also serves as an important social history of day-to-day pioneer life on the frontier. And, of course, the book is also a political document. It attempts to promote the author's own congressional career, as well as his presidential aspirations, while at every opportunity justifying his break with the political forces of Andrew Jackson.

Although doubts have often been raised concerning authorship, the book appears to be authentic. There is no doubt, however, that Davy Crockett employed the services of his friend and fellow congressman, Thomas Chilton of Kentucky, to edit and correct the manuscript. The original manuscript for the book was in Chilton's handwriting, and the Kentuckian received half of the royalties from the publisher.

Davy Crockett remained adamant that he was the sole author of the work, despite Chilton's obviously important role. "I am engaged in writing a history of my life and I have completed one hundred and ten pages," he wrote his son John on January 10, 1834, "and I have Mr. Chilton to correct it as I write it." When informing his eventual publishers, E. L. Carey and A. Hart of Philadelphia, of the division of royalties between himself and Chilton, Crockett added, "The manuscript is in his hand writing though the entire substance of it is truly my own." He admonished his publisher, however, to keep Chilton's relationship to the book confidential.

The question of authorship was important to Davy Crockett because of his unhappiness with an 1833 "unauthorized" biography, Sketches and Eccentricities of Colonel David Crockett of West Tennessee, anonymously written by St. Mathew Clair Clarke. Although Crockett must have cooperated with Clarke, the Whig clerk of the House of Representatives, in preparing the book he at least feigned dismay at the exaggerations of his character that appeared in it. He seems to have been surprised by its success and concerned that others should profit by writing of his life. In a presentation inscription of his autobiography dated March 19, 1834 (which may well be the publication date for the book) Davy Crockett writes: "I David Crockett of Tennessee do certify that this Book was written by myself and the only genuine history of my life that ever has been written. The first work is a counterfit and was written with out authority.”

The real David Crockett was born August 17, 1786, in what is now Greene County, Tennessee, just east of Knoxville, at the mouth of Limestone Creek, of dirt-poor pioneer stock.