The Frontiersmen

I am currently reading The Frontiersmen by Allan W Eckert. It is a "narrative history" of the opening of Kentucky and the great Northwest Territory -- Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota -- during the period 1755 to 1836, through events of the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. It is the first of six in the series titled "The Winning of America."
Allan W. Eckert is a historian, naturalist, novelist, poet, screenwriter, and playwright. Eckert was born in Buffalo, New York and raised in the Chicago, Illinois area, but has been a long-time resident of Bellefontaine, Ohio, near where he attended university. As a young man, he hitch-hiked around the United States, living off the land and learning about wildlife. He began writing about nature and American history at the age of thirteen, eventually becoming an author of numerous distinguished books for children and adults. Seven of his books have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in literature. One of his novels tells how the Great Auk went extinct.
Eckert has sparked controversy with his "hidden dialogue" technique. After many years of research on a topic, he has felt free to recreate historical conversations and thoughts in what some critics have considered to be "an entertaining blend of fact and fiction" purporting to be a straight biography. His colorful evocations of history have been praised as more accessible than drier, more strictly factual, accounts. I enjoy his writing, and do not quibble about whether the speaker actually used those exact words.

You can learn more at his website.

The Frontiersmen is one of numerous books written by Eckert that have been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Here is a list of all his books:

1. The Writer's Digest Course in Article Writing, 1962
2. The Great Auk, 1963
3. A Time of Terror: The Great Dayton Flood, 1965
4. *The Silent Sky:The Incredible Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, 1965
5. The Writer's Digest Course in Short Story Writing, 1965
6. Wild Season, 1967
7. The Frontiersmen, 1967
8. Bayou Backwaters, 1967
9. *The Crossbreed, 1968
10. Blue Jacket: War Chief of the Shawnees, 1968
11. *The King Snake, 1968
12. *The Dreaming Tree, 1968
13. Wilderness Empire, 1968
14. In Search of a Whale, 1969
15. The Conquerors, 1970
16. Incident at Hawk's Hill, 1971
17. *The Court-Martial of Daniel Boone, 1973
18. The Owls of North America, 1973
19. *Tecumseh!, 1975
20. *The HAB Theory, 1976
21. The Wilderness War, 1978
22. The Wading Birds of North America, 1978
23. *Savage Journey, 1979
24. *Song of the Wild, 1980
25. Whattizzit?, 1981
26. Gateway to Empire, 1982
27. *Johnny Logan: Shawnee Spy, 1982
28. *The Dark Green Tunnel, 1983
29. *The Wand, 1984
30. *The Scarlet Mansion, 1985
31. *Earth Treasures - Northeastern Quadrant, 1985
32. *Earth Treasures - Southeastern Quadrant, 1985
33. *Earth Treasures - Northwestern Quadrant, 1986
34. *Earth Treasures - Southwestern Quadrant, 1987
35. Twilight Of Empire, 1988
36. A Sorrow in Our Heart:: The Life of Tecumseh, 1992
37. That Dark and Bloody River: Chronicles of the Ohio River Valley, 1995
38. The World of Opals, 1997
39. Return to Hawk's Hill, 1998