On to the Alamo: Colonel Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas (Penguin Classics). This item is unavailable.On to the Alamo: Colonel Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas (Penguin Classics)

"Davy" Crockett's backwoods dress, slangy language, and sharp sense of humor made him a popular Washington figure and an American icon - his death in the battle of the Alamo in 1836 made him a legend. First published in the year of Crockett's death and falsely credited to his authorship, Colonel Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas presents the battle of the Alamo as a heroic effort to halt the ruthless Mexican leader Santa Anna's "invasion" of Texas.
Glorifying the vastly outnumbered defenders who refused to surrender, taking many Mexican soldiers down with them before they were finally killed, Richard Penn Smith's "eye-witness" narrative was a huge success in its day. Accepted as fact for nearly a century, Smith's fictitious account of the famous battle created a myth that became a cornerstone of Texan identity and American popular culture.

Richard Penn Smith (1790–1854) was born in Philadelphia and trained as a lawyer, but was also a newspaper editor, poet, author, and playwright of more than fifteen plays.

John Seelye has edited numerous titles for Penguin Classics, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Red Pony, and Treasure Island. He is a professor of American literature at the University of Florida.