New Crockett Letter Discovered

Originally posted on April 7, 2011

Yesterday Jim Boylston and Allen J. Wiener, authors of David Crockett in Congress: The Rise and Fall of the Poor Man’s Friend (Bright Sky Press, 2009) announced that they had uncovered a letter written by Crockett to the publishers of his best-selling autobiography. (By the way, I highly recommend their book for anyone interested in Crockett and/or Tennessee history.)

The letter was written a year before his reelection campaign against the subject of my own book Adam Huntsman: The Peg Leg Politician. As he concludes, Crockett is looking ahead to the campaign and asks his publishers for an advance of $150-$200 to help finance it. He writes:

I was beaten the election before the last and it give me a back set in money matters    An election costs a man a great deal in my country and I had strength and power to contend against

The “strength and power” he has “to contend against” turns out to be Huntsman, a formidable opponent who narrowly beats him for reelection. Of course this defeat led him to go to Texas, and the rest is history.

Order your copy of Kevin D. McCann’s latest book HURST’S WURST at http://www.kevindmccann.com

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Adam Huntsman: The Peg Leg Politician Now Available

I am now accepting orders for my latest book, Adam Huntsman: The Peg Leg Politician! (This is a temporary ordering page until my official site redesign is complete.)

There are three ways to order:

(1) Order online through PayPal (to receive a signed copy)

**For a personalized signed book, please indicate during checkout**

(2) Order by mail–Please send a check or money order for $29.00 ($25.00 + $4.00 shipping) to:

McCann Publishing

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Dickson, TN 37055

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(3) Order online at Amazon.com (see left column of my blog)

Order your copy of Kevin D. McCann’s latest book HURST’S WURST at http://www.kevindmccann.com

Adam Huntsman: The Peg Leg Politician Available Soon

My latest book–Adam Huntsman: The Peg Leg Politician–will be released officially on February 11, 2011, on what would have been Huntsman’s 225th birthday. But copies will be available for purchase in early January if you can’t wait that long. Anyone who is interested in Tennessee history or David Crockett in particular will enjoy this 298-page biography. If you’re a Crockett fan, it offers a different perspective on his political career from the viewpoint of one of his most determined opponents.

To learn more about Adam Huntsman, here’s an earlier post about his life and political career and another on his trademark peg leg.

Order your copy of Kevin D. McCann’s latest book HURST’S WURST at http://www.kevindmccann.com

A Christmas Eve Update

I’ve been so consumed with finishing work on my biography of Adam Huntsman that I’ve neglected to make any blog posts in quite a while! My apologies. Thankfully, I can report that this project is almost completed with a publication date of February 11, 2011, which will be Huntsman’s 225th birthday. The book will be a paperback with 274 pages, my largest one to date. It should be available a few weeks sooner than Feb. 11. After that, I have a baseball book project lined up for a spring or summer 2012 release.

Order your copy of Kevin D. McCann’s latest book HURST’S WURST at http://www.kevindmccann.com

I’m Back!

I’m not sure if there’s anyone still following my blog–it’s been a LONG time since I’ve posted anything–but if there is, I’m pleased to announce … I have returned.

I’ve been busy for the past ten months writing and editing my upcoming book, The Peg Leg Politician: Adam Huntsman and Tennessee Frontier Politics. My deadline keeps getting pushed forward, but right now it’s tentatively scheduled for release in September. Hopefully I can still take advantage of the political campaign season to help promote the book and that fact that it’s the 175th anniversary of the fateful 1835 Congressional election that saw Adam Huntsman beat the celebrated David Crockett. If Huntsman had lost and Crockett won, history and legend would have been forever changed: Crockett would not have gone to Texas, and would not have died at the Alamo.

Huntsman is an interesting and colorful–though overlooked–figure in Tennessee political history. Hopefully this new biography will give him a little recognition.

Order your copy of Kevin D. McCann’s latest book HURST’S WURST at http://www.kevindmccann.com

Another Book Progress Report

Wow, it’s been almost two months since I last posted to my blog! Not that I heard a clamor from anyone who reads it for my whereabouts, but I thought I would check back in nonetheless.

I’ve still working on edits and rewriting a few chapters for my book Adam Huntsman: The Peg-Legged Politician over the summer in anticipation of its release this fall. I’ve also commissioned a talented young artist who is working on three unique artistic additions to the book that I’m very excited about. More news on this book project in the weeks to come.

I will be giving a talk in late October on the subject of my last book Hurst’s Wurst: Colonel Fielding Hurst and the Sixth Tennessee Cavalry U.S.A. Details are still being worked out, but I should be able to make an announcement later this week. It’s been a while since I returned to anything related to Hurst and I’m looking forward to revisiting his story and that of the Sixth Tennessee (Union) Cavalry.

I haven’t been posting to my blog the past few months, but I have been tweeting on Twitter and built a decent 500+ tweets over the summer. There’s a few updates on my projects, but mostly I share links to newspaper articles and blog posts I come across having to do with U.S. history, Tennessee history, and U.S. Presidents. I hope you’ll follow me there!

Order your copy of Kevin D. McCann’s latest book HURST’S WURST at http://www.kevindmccann.com

Progress Report on Book Projects

It’s been two months since I’ve written a post, so I thought I would give everyone an update on projects of interest to readers of my blog.

The closest project to completion is the revised second edition of my 1996 book The Peg-Legged Politician: The Life of Adam Huntsman. Editing and layout work is progressing nicely with a publication date of August 23 on the horizon. It will be the 160th anniversary of Huntsman’s death at his home near Jackson, Tennessee in 1849. A new Huntsman website is also in the works that will be launched in the coming weeks.

Thank you so much to everyone who has written to me about a project close to my heart, a proposed biography of third baseman Ken Boyer of the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers. This one is in the research phase right now as I learn more about his fifteen-year major league career. To keep up with this project, please visit my website or my site dedicated to Mr. Boyer.

Order your copy of Kevin D. McCann’s latest book HURST’S WURST at http://www.kevindmccann.com

Tippecanoe and Tyler Too

As part of my writing on the life and political career of Adam Huntsman, I’m researching the Presidential election of 1840 that saw Andrew Jackson’s Democratic party suffer its first Presidential defeat to the Whig party. William Henry Harrison of Ohio and running mate John Tyler of Virginia rode the crest of an unprecedented wave of campaign enthusiasm into the President’s House. Five years ago, a band called They Might Be Giants actually created their own version of a campaign song from that election. It’s kind of catchy after listening to it a few times! (The lyrics “Van is a used up man” refers to the incumbent President Martin Van Buren.)

Order your copy of Kevin D. McCann’s latest book HURST’S WURST at http://www.kevindmccann.com

Plugging Away…

To those who check my blog from time to time, I apologize for the lack of posts. I’ve been hard at work on my latest book project on the life and political career of Adam Huntsman. So I’ve been writing, but it’s work you won’t see for a few more months. The ETA for this book is June or July 2009. For those of you interested in Tennessee history, antebellum politics, and David Crockett, I think you’ll find it to be an interesting account of one minor but colorful politician during the Age of Jackson.

Order your copy of Kevin D. McCann’s latest book HURST’S WURST at http://www.kevindmccann.com

Adam Huntsman as a Cultural Icon

Everyone has seen the Obama icon image that was used throughout the late unpleasantness (i.e. the 2008 Presidential election). Now there’s a website that enables anyone to create their own icon. Using this technology, I thought I would pay homage to the focus of all my writing energies of late.

Order your copy of Kevin D. McCann’s latest book HURST’S WURST at http://www.kevindmccann.com