THE LEGEND OF DANIEL WILLIAMS

by Peter Freuchen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1956

Daniel Williams was a freed slave who, let loose upon the world, ce North in the 1870's and didn't stop until he hit Northwest Canada, and who lived to be hanged on a murder charge in 1880. Peter Freuchen has recreated his jegendary life with an immediacy that evokes sympathy for the giant man whose naivete brought destruction on himself and others, whose tenderness could be matched by his violence, whose reputation as a crack shot among the Indians and a crack pot, among the whites brought his sad end. Indentured by the Company by a trick, Dan broke away, defending himself by shooting, and took up with the Beaver tribe, whose wary acceptance of the man with the hunting power and the dark spirit to be placated led to Dan's killing, again in self-defense, of the tribal medicine man. Beholden only to Queen Victoria and Jesus Christ, Dan became embroiled with a French trader over some cloth he wanted prior to baptising his Indian followers and entangled in tribal taboos -- he emerged from the tribe with the daughter of the chief, whose life he had saved. Mute from an accident, she kept his house on the territory he staked and claimed without papers, which brought on the fatal clash with the Hudson's Bay Company men who legally owned the property. Backwoods drama of a soul journeying in the darkness of noncompre hension, a Canadian Calihan, for readers of the lore. Zestful biography by the author of Vagrant Viking now a TV figure through his triumph on a popular quiz program.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Messner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1956

Categories: NONFICTION