Sherry Chandler » Boone and Gulliver
Boone and Gulliver
According to William S. Ward’s A Literary History of Kentucky (The University of Tennessee Press, 1988), the first book read in Kentucky was Gulliver’s Travels. The year was 1769. Here is his account:
By pre-arrangement, Boone’s younger brother, Squire, and John Stewart brought fresh supplies from North Carolina through Cumberland Gap and up the Warrior’s Path to a point about four miles west of Pilot Knob where they rendezvoused with Boone and Findley and camped with them near a small stream in what is now Clark County. Here during the evenings Squire Boone read aloud from Swift’s satire… On one occasion Stewart returned to camp and reported that he, like Gulliver, had been to Lorbrulgrud, the capitol of Brobdingnag, and killed two of its inhabitants. He had, in fact, killed two buffaloes. The name Lorbrulgrud, which these campers gave the creek, is still used today, though in the much-shortened form Lulbegrud.
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2 Comments
1. Georgia Green Stamper replies at 2nd April 2006, 3:53 pm :
Fascinating! What an image - the Boones sitting around a campfire in the wilderness reading Jonathan Swift’s satire. Georgia
2. sherry replies at 2nd April 2006, 7:06 pm :
Ward thinks the Boones were only interested in Gulliver as a tall tale, sort of in the tradition of Mike Fink or Paul Bunyon. But, as I think Thomas Johnson illustrates, there was a strain of satiric wit alive on the frontier.
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