David Crockett: The Man and the Legend

Davy Crockett has been America's best-known folk hero for at least 160 years. This informed biography by James Atkins Shackford first appeared in 1956, at the height of the television-inspired Crockett craze. As Michael Lofaro notes in his introduction, "Shackford faced the monumental task of rescuing a nearly unknown David Crockett from the obscurity caused by the popularity of the earlier legendary Davys and deepened by Disney." He succeeded memorably, restoring David Crockett of Tennessee, a true pioneer and colorful figure even without romantic trappings. James Atkins Shackford was an assistant professor of English at North Carolina State University. Michael A. Lofaro, associate professor of English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is editor of Davy Crockett: The Man, the Legend, the Legacy, 1786-1986.