Got a very nice note from Ted Franklin Belue a couple of days ago. He had some nice things to say about the work here, which is deeply pleasing to me, because Ted Franklin Belue is a kindred spirit and, in fact, one of the godfathers of Frontier Partisans.
Belue is the author of two essential frontier histories: The Hunters of Kentucky and The Long Hunt. I’ve referenced his work several times, because I think his analysis of the way the economics and culture of the early trans-Appalachian hunters worked is right in the x-ring.
Belue’s work, along with Winfred Blevins’ Rocky Mountain Fur Trade tribute, Give Your Heart to the Hawks, provided a model for what I seek to do — non-fiction historical storytelling that is accurate and authentic, but full of the rip-roaring vigor that the protagonists demand. This history is alive to him. I reckon he’s palavering with ghosts on a daily basis, just as I am.
His experience tracks with mine:
“Early in my life, at least by third grade, I became infatuated with the romance of America’s first ‘far west,’ that being frontier Kentucky, and woodland Indians, especially the Shawnee. In school I realized I had a knack for being able to express myself with a pen.”
Yep. The infatuation — and the compulsion to turn it into prose — is shared and apparently perpetual.
Reading this: “Great site … I love perusing through here… Again, keep up the great work. We need folks like you,” means a great deal to me. It’s like getting musical kudos from Waylon Jennings or Steve Earle. Seriously. That’s where Ted Franklin Belue stands in my estimation. My hat fits a little snugger than it did before I got that missive, and I might have to get out the stretcher… but I ain’t sorry.
Ted Franklin Belue’s work should be in every frontier history library, and I promise you’ll revisit it often. And if you enjoy this campfire, give him a nod and a tip of the hat, because he provided the char cloth and the flint and steel to make and catch the spark.
And he’s a musician, too.
Paul McNamee says
“Rapacious hunting” :/
Oh, to have seen those herds back in the day before the greed set in.
wayne says
I’m with you! Belue’s The Long Hunt is one of the best books on the subject, along with Robert John Holden’s lesser known The Hunting Pioneers: 1720-1840.
JimC says
First I’ve heard of the Holden book, which I will, of course, have to pick up. Some interesting parallels with the early trekboers, family groups who made their living entirely through hunting in southern Africa.
wayne says
It’s easy to imagine how that tradition of hunting as a way of life had boiled down to squirrel hunting, deer camp, trot line running, frog gigging, float fishing, box trapping rabbits, and quail and dove shoots in the south of my grandfather. Makes you wonder how much of that impulse to feed yourself from the wild will survive in the next few generations.
Padre says
I remember my dad and I enjoying his articles in Muzzleloader magazine and the late Dixie Gun Works Annual. Somehow I had forgotten about his books. They should be going on my to be read pile.
.lane batot says
Never heard of or come across his books before, but thanks to Frontier Partisans, I’ll be looking for copies……
JimC says
You’ll love his stuff.