Customer Reviews

Lone Scout: W. D. Boyce and American Boy Scouting

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Unlike the "reviewer" from Houston, I liked the book.

William Boyce was a man of whom little is truly known. There is no Boyce Library and Archive and there is not any overflowing amount of information about him in the BSA National Archives. He was an important fringe character whose story should be known.

Due to this lack of information, LONE SCOUT is the first book that goes into the persona of the man, the man who is generally credited with bringing the idea of Boy Scouting to the USA in terms of the present organization known as the BSA. In my research of the beginnings of the worldwide Movement of Boy Scouting, LONE SCOUT has been a rather good resource on this topic that enabled me to delve further into the story of Boyce with regard to his role in the BSA. And since this is the first substantive biography on him, it should be the one upon which all future ones should be compared.

At this point in time, Ms. Petterchak's book is the most definitive look into Mr. Boyce's life, and to my literary knowledge, font size has never been a critical determinant in discerning the quality of content. A panning argument of "large font size" is cursory and of little importance.

Give this book a read, it's highly worth one's time.

For readers interested in Boy Scout history, and especially about the organizaton's founder, this is a valuable biography. No previous book on the Scouts has offered more than a few sentences about Boyce. The "Lone Scout" research, index, and narrative style are all excellent. I especially enjoyed the chapter on his African safari, the "Balloonograph Expedition." What an adventure!

If you want detailed information about a very successful businessman, the man who provided jobs for not only thousands of adults, but for 30,000 - 50,000 of early 1900's American youth, the man who initiated the Boy Scouts of America and the Lone Scouts of America, the man who proposed taking over the US Postal system so that it could operate more efficiently at half the cost, etc., etc., etc., then I'm sure that you will enjoy and appreciate this book. I bought my initial copy of it from the author, but hours & hours of research-use took its toll on that copy (still useable, but a bit fragile). So, thinking too much of this book not to have a good one in my library, I purchased a second copy. I think Janice Petterchak has produced absolutely the best book on the amazing life of William Dickson Boyce.

I've purchased many books (new and used) dealing with Scouting, and this is the first one that I had an almost physical reaction when I opened it. For the rather expensive price ($21.95) for a paperback, I was expecting a book on the par of Kett's "Rites of Passge" or MacLeod's "Building Character." Needless to say, the small paper size, the large font size, the paltry number of endnotes, and the limited bibliography was a disappointment.

To be perfectly honest, it looks more like a college paper than a published professional biography. This sense was confirmed when I noticed that the author was citing an undergraduate unpublished paper as a source! And a source for a US Congressional Report that any good researcher can obtain with no problem.

Unfortunately, a serious biography of Boyce has yet to be written and published. If you'e wanting to read such a work, you'll have to wait. If you really want to read this book, then wait a year and you'll be able to buy it when it is marked down to it's real value in the used book stores.