"This is real Americana. What Mrs. McKeown has written is out and out history but a whacking good narrative as well. . . . Some of the finest adventure yarns you ever came across. . . A fascinating account."—Joseph Henry Jackson, San Francisco Chronicle
"It is America itself Mrs. McKeown writes about, the shaping of our country and the forging of our social conscience. . . . As readable as a novel, making effective use, indeed, of a novelists's devices, her book is also history of the first writer and should have lasting value."—Dale L. Morgan in the Saturday Review 
"Mont Hawthorne embodies the spirit of America. . . . You feel as though you's been a pioneer yourself."—Paul Jordan-Smith in the Los Angeles Times 
"When the reader picks up this book it is exactly like pulling up an armchair and settling down to hear for the first time a prime story-teller spin pioneer adventures in his own unvarnished way."—Seattle Times