Author Robert Morgan speaks to NGU about Daniel Boone biography
Posted by The Skyliner on April 8th, 2009
Samantha Mayo
Staff Writer
Myth Buster: Robert Morgan examines the life of Daniel Boone to distinguish fact from fantasy. Students from North Greenville University (Photo by Elizabeth Wood)
A group of NGU students, including an Appalachian English class and a historical writing class, gathered to hear author Robert Morgan in the science auditorium on March 30.
Morgan, the author of several award winning novels and multiple volumes of poetry, spoke to students about his biography on Daniel Boone.
Morgan was inspired to branch off from his usual fiction and poetry writing to explore biography writing due to a longstanding interest in Boone. The stories Morgan’s father told him about Boone, Morgan’s experiences being raised in the Blue Ridge Mountain area and Morgan’s deep interest in the meeting of white and Native American culture inspired his desire to write about Boone.
Morgan said he set out with two main purposes in researching and writing about Boone.
“I wanted to see if I could find out why Daniel Boone was so famous,” Morgan said.
Many other great woodsmen faded from the pages of history. Morgan said that his purpose was to discover what made Boone different.
“I wanted to peel away the folklore and myths to find a living, breathing human being that we in the 21 century could relate to,” Morgan said.
He found that he was even more successful than he originally anticipated in stripping away the myth from the man.
“Early in my research I learned that everything I knew about Daniel Boone was wrong,” Morgan said.
Morgan shared some of his myth-busting discoveries with the students as well as outlined some of the major events in Boone’s life. He described Boone’s ambition, personality, frustrations, dreams, and explaining Boone’s rise to prominence as a romantic ideal.
“I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know,” Paula Underwood, junior elementary education, said after hearing Morgan’s lecture.
Morgan read excerpts from his book to give students a sampling of his writing style. The passages from Morgan’s book were homey, descriptive and laced with dry humor, complementing his storyteller-like speaking style.
Morgan said he draws heavily on his upbringing for his writing. He has strong ties to both North and South Carolina, and he sets all his stories against a Carolina backdrop.
Morgan’s background and experience gave him an advantage in writing about Boone. In doing his research, Morgan found that because he was a woodsman himself he could more easily distinguish the fact from the myth in common Boone stories than most scholars could.
Morgan plans to publish another nonfiction work in 2011 or 2012. The book continues the theme of westward expansion begun in Morgan’s Boone biography. Morgan is also writing a new novel set in the foothills around the Greenville area to be published soon.