your previous book was on daniel boone, a great favorite of mine, and the book is wonderful. you don't include daniel boone and lines of the west but, of course, you've all ready done, but his spirit is all through "lions of the west," and references are made to him. i've often thought of daniel boone as a founding father keyes a founding father of the american west. and while washington and jefferson and frankel of the founding fathers of our eastern democracy, it's daniel boone who takes it west of the mountains and opens up everything that you write about in "lions of the west." would you agree with that? >> as it turns out, yes, boone had enormous influence on the future of the country because of that. he opened up kentucky. and as i say in the book, kentucky was the key, once you why a settlement in kentucky, it's inevitable you have settlements in ohio, indiana, and for the west. so he is indeed the father of the country, this country expanding to the west that jefferson had dreamed of it and oddly enough, boone new jefferson because boone was in the virginia legislatur