Davy Crockett's Riproarious Shemales and Sentimental Sisters-Hc [Hardcover]

Michael Lofaro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2001

Conceived as a marketing device by nineteenth-century publishers hoping to gain a share of the lucrative almanac market, The Crockett Almanacs became the best-selling and longest-running series of comic almanacs published in the United States before the Civil War. Michael Lofaro explores one of the Almanacs' most entertaining and intriguing aspects: the adventures of backwoods women. Their portrayals, which range from the heroic to the satiric, from the comic to the sentimental, create uproarious laughter and provoke serious commentary-often in the same tale.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These amusing tales were originally published in The Crockett Almanacs, a series of humorous almanacs that appeared between 1835 and 1856 and were narrated by Davy Crockett, the superhero from Tennessee. While 18th-century almanacs had served as guides for practical problems, like weather predictions, by the 19th century they had become popular sources of entertainment. The Crockett Alamanacs were the longest-running comic almanac of the period. Lofaro has gathered together the Crockett tales dealing with women, or backwoods "shemales," whose physical characteristics and exploits resemble exaggerated males of outrageous and humorous strength and courage. In "Shemales, Sentiment, and Stereotypes," he explores the characters, the images, and the political and social symbolism of the tales. He observes that the extreme masculinity of the women portrayed in the almanacs was a playful device for ridiculing the ideal of 19th-century femininity. The tales themselves, organized and presented by topic, are great fun, but it is the intelligence of the format and the sophistication of the analysis that raise this collection above the merely amusing and make it a revealing study of the imagery of 19th-century women. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Bonnie Collier, Yale Law Lib., New Haven
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Michael Lofaro has published numerous works on frontier America including The Life and Adventures of Daniel Boone; Davy Crockett: The Man, The Legend, The Legacy 1786-1986, Crockett at Two Hundred; and The Tall Tales of Davy Crockett: The Second Nashville Series of Crockett Almanacs 1839-1841. He is a professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Stackpole Books (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811704998
• ISBN-13: 978-0811704991
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,189,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible, December 5, 2009

By 

M. Barnett - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Davy Crockett's Riproarious Shemales and Sentimental Sisters-Hc (Hardcover)

At first, I was excited to find this collection of short stories. I immediately shredded the box open with a bowie knife and took the book into my hands, ready for some amazing adventures. But I was deceived. Despite claims of riproarious transsexuals, none of these stories had any of the hardcore historical action I expected from Davy Crockett's wild travels. I will never look at Amazon the same way, ever.