author
John Filson
d. 1788
An early chronicler of Kentucky, he helped shape how the American frontier was imagined in print. His lively 1784 book mixed history, description, and the famous adventures of Daniel Boone, giving readers one of the first widely read accounts of the region.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, around 1747, John Filson was a schoolteacher, surveyor, mapmaker, and writer who became one of the earliest historians of Kentucky. After moving west in the 1780s, he drew on firsthand experience to describe the land, its settlements, and the people building new lives there.
He is best known for The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke, published in 1784. The book included a map of Kentucky and an account of Daniel Boone's adventures that helped spread Boone's legend to a wide audience. Filson's writing gave eastern and European readers a vivid picture of the frontier at a moment when interest in the region was rapidly growing.
Filson later became involved in land ventures around the Ohio country and is remembered as one of the founders of the settlement that became Cincinnati, Ohio. He disappeared in 1788 during a journey near the Great Miami River and is generally believed to have been killed that year.