Q ‘n’ A with author Scott Williams
Contact:
Scott Williams
rscottwilliamsemail@gmail.com
731-599-9749
July 12, 2021
Press copy available upon request.
New Book About David Crockett Explores His Rise to Fame and Relationship with West Tennessee
Union City, Tenn. – Discovery Park of America CEO, Scott Williams, has released “The Accidental Fame and Lack of Fortune of West Tennessee’s David Crockett.” The nonfiction book, available now on Amazon in advance of Crockett’s 235th birthday on August 17, 2021, focuses on the Tennessee congressman’s journey from frontier to fame to international icon. Williams also includes stories of many of the colorful characters in Crockett’s life from the state’s early history including James K. Polk, Sam Houston, Marcus Winchester and Andrew Jackson. Crockett and Jackson were bitter enemies, and Jackson contributed to Crockett’s eventual congressional defeat.
Crockett served in the Tennessee state legislature from 1821 to 1824, then as congressman representing West Tennessee counties in the United States House of Representatives from 1827 to 1831 and 1833 to 1835. He represented settlers making their homes in the counties of Carroll, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson, Hardeman, Hardin, Haywood, Henderson, Henry, Lawrence, Madison, McNairy, Obion, Perry, Shelby, Tipton, Wayne, and Weakley.
“Crockett was both literally and symbolically a ‘common man,’ and that role grew more important as governing the country shifted away from the educated eastern elites to regular working-class Americans,” said Williams. “He also blazed a trail representing an exciting, new type of American that thrilled early media and entertainment consumers. He made them excited about what could be found down the river or just over the next mountain, and that popularity resulted in a level of fame not yet experienced by anyone else at that time.”
During his lifetime, Crockett, or characters he inspired, showed up in every channel of artistic expression available to creative minds in the early decades of the nineteenth century including books, plays, songs, paintings and woodcut illustrations. Newspaper reporters found that writing about him—and copying and reprinting what others had written—sold newspapers and magazines, so he was a frequent subject of both real and fake news.
“This is not a chronological biography of the life David Crockett,” said Williams. “The purpose of this book is to explore the culture that fueled Crockett’s unlikely rise from uneducated frontiersman to world-famous icon, while also examining the birth of Tennessee during what I think is one of the most fascinating periods in American history.”
Williams grew up in Memphis, Tenn. and majored in journalism at the University of Memphis. His ancestors were among the earliest settlers in nearby Haywood County, Tenn. in the early 1830s. He became the president and CEO of Discovery Park of America in Union City, Tenn. in 2019. Visitors to the museum and heritage park will find an exhibit on David Crockett, a statue dedicated to his memory and numerous other references to the frontier congressman who settled in the area in 1822. The museum also has a day-long birthday celebration planned for Sat., Aug. 14, 2021. Crockett lived in Northwest Tennessee until he departed in 1835 for Texas and his death five months later at the Alamo.
“The Accidental Fame and Lack of Fortune of West Tennessee’s David Crockett” is available on Amazon.com. For bulk order information and other details, visit TheRealDavidCrockett.com.
Also available for wholesale purchase by libraries, bookstores and other retailers from:
- Author: R. Scott Williams
- Published: July 11, 2021
- Language : English
- Paperback : 319 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0998699748
- ISBN-13 : 978-0998699745
- Item Weight : 1.23 pounds
- Dimensions : 7 x 0.72 x 10 inches