*Includes pictures *Includes Allen's quotes and accounts of his life *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading “His fortitude and firmness seem to have placed him out of reach of misfortune. There is an original something in him that commands admiration; and his long captivity and sufferings have only served to increase, if possible, his enthusiastic zeal.” – George Washington The story of Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys is one of those delightful tales that American schoolchildren hear about in school, but it is also one that is much more interesting to read about in older age. Unlike revered Founding Fathers such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who came from Virginian plantations, Allen was a rough and tumble frontiersman more likely to fight than talk. And yet, he was in no way a dullard, but instead as well-read as many of his contemporaries and more so than the average man of his day. His family story reads almost like a cheap novel, from his heretic father to his hotheaded brothers and his shrewish first wife. By the time he was 30 years old, Allen had run up a significant list of skirmishes with law, something most of his fellow Revolutionary War heroes managed to avoid. Unlike Washington, who received his military training as a soldier in the famous British Army, Allen learned to fight in the backwoods of what is now Vermont, struggling alongside others for independence years before Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.