If American mythmaking had followed anything like the true ancient pattern, the mountain man would certainly be our number one Hero by now. Our tendency toward urban uniformity, with its multiplication of human frustrations, our high degree of literacy, and the presence of movies, radios and tv sets have already made his time, the time of the great westering, into a kind of American golden age. And that is exactly the sort of remote, enviable but not quite believable morning of the world in which heros (with a small ''h'') have always been freed of their too-literal being and become Heros, representative figures capable of performing legendary deeds. -The Big Sky A.B. Guthrie Jr. ......This is the Best book intro EVER!