However unlikely a figure he cut among his contemporaries, Filson’s writing has had a sustained influence on American history, folklore, and literature. “A man does not have to be great to be important,” Filson’s biographer says. “As an entrepreneur Filson was a failure. As a person he was uncongenial. As an intellectual he was undistinguished. But because he undertook some tedious and petty tasks, he made a substantial contribution to American history and letters: book and map sped the settlement of the West; in his tale of the adventures of Daniel Boone he created the prototype of our
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