Lot 129: BOONE, Daniel (1734-1820), Frontiersman . Autograph letter signed ("Daniel Boone"), to James Minor, 19 September 1784. 1 page, 8vo, seal hole repaired, tipped to another sheet .

BOONE, Daniel (1734-1820), Frontiersman. Autograph letter signed ("Daniel Boone"), to James Minor, 19 September 1784. 1 page, 8vo, seal hole repaired, tipped to another sheet. A RARE DANIEL BOONE LETTER TO A PROSPECTIVE KENTUCKY SETTLER. Boone, with his distinctive spelling, discusses the surveying of some Kentucky land: "Mr Smith has Wated on me several times to survay your land but onavoidable accedents hath prevent it. But it will be dun in a few weeks from now but your land is out of any dispute and is very good and lyes a bout 20 miles from Boons borough between the Cantuck and Licking. I hope you will rest assured the bisness shall be dun as Mr Smith is allways redy to attend." After Boone's tumultuous experiences fighting the Shawnee--who briefly held him captive--he settled down to the life as a surveyor's assistant, merchant, landowner, and recruiter to bring settlers west from the seaboard States. He would often report--as he does here--about the quality and title of the land that easterners were interested in acquiring. This same year, 1784, also saw the publication of John Filson's, The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke (1784), a work written by one of Boone's friends, and which made him famous. Filson mixed the dramatic facts of Boone's life (Braddock's expedition to Ft. Duquesne, Indian fighting) with tall tales of Boone supposedly besting a bear in hand-to-hand combat and the like. It made him a global celebrity. Boone--the man and the myth--"exemplified the American way of life, the ideal of frontier independence and virtue" (Michael A. Lofaro, Dictionary of American Biography). BOONE LETTERS ARE SCARCE. Only four have appeared at auction since 1970.