The legendary feats of Davy Crockett, who could tree a ghost, ride his thirty-seven-foot-long alligator up Niagara Falls, and drink up the Mississippi River, are common knowledge to devotees of this nineteenth-century comic superhero. But what may come as a surprise to many is that the legendary frontiersman also served as the fictional narrator of a collection of outrageous tall tales about women in the same Crocket Almanacs in which he "recorded" his own adventures. Conceived as a marketing device by nineteenth-century publishers hoping to gain a share of the lucrative almanac market, such stories made these slim volumes the best-selling and longest-running series of comic almanacs published in the United States before the Civil War. Booking back at them now, the Crocket Almanacs offer a true "fun house mirror" view of the culture of antebellum America.
Michael Lofaro has published numerous works on frontier America including The Life and Adventures of Daniel Boone. He has also published three other books on Crockett with the University of Tennessee Press, including Davy Crockett: The Man, The Legend, Th
"Michael Lofaro, our foremost authority on the American folk-hero Davy Crockett, has given us another anthology of stories as told by Davy himself. Like Davy and his wilderness pals, these shemales are ferocious examples of frontier humanity, bear killers and man-hunters, handy with a rifle or a hot poker. Lofaro has filled in a missing space in our popular culture, providing a diverse sample of Crockett's women who are anecdotal antidotes to the domestic ideals celebrated by clergy persons and other literary ladies of the Victorian era. These are dangerous and subversive expressions of gendered mayhem, not angels in the house, but devils in the log-cabin, and this book should be kept out of the reach of female children lest they get the wrong idea." - John Seelye, University of Florida--John Seelye Davy Crockett's Riproarious Shemales and Sentimental Sisters is a fabulous collection of tales. Full of the rough humor of antebellum America, it offers incredible insights into the attitudes and popular culture of that era. Lofaro's excellent introductory essay and clever organization of the stories immeasurably add to the value of this important book. This is a superb work of scholarship that is also just plain fun to read." -Paul A. Hutton, University of New Mexico--Paul A. Hutton
