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"The Hunters of Kentucky: America's First Far West, 1750-1792"

Kentucky remains a symbol of America's first Far West. A New World Eden that sparked mass migration through the Cumberland Gap and down the Ohio, and ultimately, creation of the Union's fifteenth state.

Once Kentucky's realm was a forbidding land an "island in the wilderness" that some deemed "The Dark and Bloody Ground." Daniel Boone was not the first white man to behold Kentucky's herds, timber, and lush soil. Boone, like other explorers, surveyors and hunters, was a beneficiary of knowledge from the Indians, French trappers, English adventurers and deer slayers looking Westward, whose life songs have remained largely muted.

Seeking to restore a balance lacking in most histories, Ted Franklin Belue will tell of the sweep of human tide infiltrating Kentucky and of those famous and those less heralded ordinary yet extraordinary men whose exploits and perseverance in the face of perils and hardships shaped the destiny of the United States. Implicit too, as time allows, will be Belue's thoughts on dress, arms and accouterments, Long Hunters, and impact of James Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales.

 

About the Speaker:

Ted Franklin Belue

Descended from a long line of Carolina Huguenots and Mississippians, Ted Franklin Belue has a deep love for the American frontier. In the 1960s at his grade school in Orlando, Florida, he read a book on Daniel Boone that completely captivated him. Firmly hooked, he spent the next few years scouting out libraries, lugging home armloads of books on Boone, Simon Kenton, Simon Girty, Shawnee Indians and Kentucky rifles.

In 1990 Belue made his writing debut in "Muzzleloader" and in 1993 joined the staff as a Special Features writer. To date he has published more than seventy essays in trade and scholarly press, in addition to prominent living history magazines as "Muzzleloader" and others. His articles have appeared in Garland's "The American Revolution, 1775 1783: An Encyclopedia," "The Kentucky Encyclopedia," "Filson Club History Quarterly," "Bluegrass Unlimited," "The Book of Buckskinning VII," "The Book of Buckskinning VIII," and many such publications.

The summer of 1991 Belue worked for seven weeks as an extra and stand in for the motion picture "The Last of the Mohicans," and has portrayed various personae on The History Channel in episodes of "River Pirates," "Frontier Medicine," and "Carson & Cody: The Hunter Heroes." In 2001 he was hired as a primary script and technical consultant and on air commentator for The History Channel's "Boone & Crockett: The Hunter Heroes," a two-hour presentation which won A & E's network's award for "Best Documentary," an honor seconded by the Western Writers of America.

Besides his extensive magazine work, Belue is author of "The Long Hunt: Death of the Buffalo East of the Mississippi" (1996), editor of "A Sketch of the Life and Character of Daniel Boone" (1997) and of Lyman C. Draper's landmark biography, "The Life of Daniel Boone" (1998). All three books were nominated for the Kentucky Governor's Award and the last called by "Publishers Weekly," "a treasure trove of Early Americana."

Belue's newest (2003) publication, "The Hunters of Kentucky: A Narrative History of America's First Far West, 1750 1792," tells of the sweep of human tide infiltrating the middle ground and has been nominated for the Western Writers of America's Spur Award for Best Historical Non Fiction and, was deemed by multi Pulitzer Prize nominee and well-known author, Allan W. Eckert, to be "one of the most remarkable books on the Kentucky frontier ever penned."

Belue was selected for inclusion in "Contemporary Authors, 1998 99 and 2003 04," and for "International Authors and Writers Who's Who, 2001 02." In January 1999 his work was profiled in "Humanities: the magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities," and he has served as editorial advisor for the "Filson Historical Society" and speaker for the "Kentucky Humanities Council".

In addition to his historical writings, Ted is a bluegrass musician and keenly interested in natural history, conservation, and man's relationship to his environment. He lives in Murray, Kentucky, with his wife Lavina and currently is a lecturer for the Department of History at Murray State University.

 

Examples of
Ted Franklin Belue's Work

Click image for larger view. Click the name and read a review of his work.

ORDER NOW

A Sketch of the Life and Chrater Of Daniel Boone
The Hunters of Kentucky: A Narrative History Of America's First Far West, 1750-1792
The Long hunt: Death of the Buffalo East of the mississippi
The Life of Daniel Boone

 

FUTURE SHOW DATES
March 20-21, 2010
March 19-20, 2011
March 17-18, 2012


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