Daniel Boone

The "Boon or Boone" mentioned twice in the "Appendix Compsons" is most famous for exploring and settling what was then part of Virginia, and what is now Kentucky, creating a route through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains that many settlers would later follow. The settlement referred to in the text is probably Boonesborough, one of the first settlements west of the Appalachians. In the first mention Boone is portrayed as a peer of Quentin MacLachan Compson, simply "a neighbor" who had "already established a settlement" on the frontier (326), the second mention conjures up a larger-than-life figure who keeps company with Robinson Crusoe (330).