Evening star., 1954-11-28


Is their significance in Amer
lean culture?
These were among the ques-
tions Marshall w. Fishwick
asked as he embarked on his
study, american Heroes: Myth
and Reality" public Affairs
Press; $3.75). The answers he
has come up with make an
absorbing and stimulating
book.
Mr.. Fishwick, who is associate
professor of American studies
at Washington and Lee Uni
versity, Is no mere debunker.
He has not set out to deflate
Americas heroes, though in
some instances his probing
research has had that effect.
He has tried to find out why
certain men in our history
stand above the backward
horizon of the years, in heroic
proportions: how much of their
size is actual, how much the
mirage of legend. He does not
pretend in most instances to
have reached definitive conclu-
sions. The information he has
ferreted out is helpful. He has
made the figures he examines
clearer. more understandable.
How They Rose
The actual heroes we meet
are as diversified as Washing
ton, who succeeded without
any indirect or left
handed attempts to acquire
popularity; Lee, Lincoln,
Daniel Boone, Billy the Kid.
Buffalo Bill. Henry Ford (the
hero of the mechanical age)
and Douglas Fairbanks. Some
are purely legendary char
acters, like Paul Bunyon and
Joe Magarac. Others are not
even human. Vide: Mickey
Mouse.
While analyzing the cir
cumstances that made perma-
nent heroes of such men as
Washington and Lee, the
author has not detracted an
inch from the lofty charac-
ters and ideal courage of men
like these.
He finds that Will Cody
buffalo Bill was largely the
product of the imagination
and theatrical flare of Ned
Buntline, the f1amboyant dime
novelist. Yet Mr.. Fishwick
adds: But let us not do Bill
Cody an injustice. He ha d,
after all, demonstrated that
he was a virile fellow before
he turned from the outdoor
bison to the indoor Elks. For
good and sufficient reasons,
Phil Sheridan, Wild Bill
Hickok and Frank North con-
sidered him one of their kind.
The Wild West he domes-
ticated for show purposes was
basically authentic. The bally-
hoo came UP out Of the East"
Buildup for Boone
Boone was seized on as the
prototype for all the brave
men who pushed the frontiers
through the Allegheny Noun
tains westward. THAT he was
also a modest man who
claimed to have killed only one
Indian, an illiterate man who
had difficulty writing his own
name and an unsocial man
who drifted westward in
search of elbow room, only
heightens his achievement"
Mr.. Fishwick figures that
five men were responsible for
the terrific reputation Boone
attained through the years.
The best known are the novel;
list James Fenimore Cooper
and Dan Beard, founder Cat
least inspirer) Of the Boy
Scouts.
Likely the historical char :,
acter around whom the little
people of legend danced most
Justify was Davy Crockett, the
early 10Th century woodsman
and scout. His death at the
Alamo set off the lore that
made of him folk character
almost as fabulous in his feats
as were Paul Bunyan, John
Henry or Santa Claus.
Folklore q La Mode
Perhaps the most interesting
chapter is the one in which
Mr.. Fishwick charges persua-
sively that certain of our folk
lore personages did not emerge
from all tales around camp
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