Go Ahead!!" The Crockett Almanac 1839. Containing Adventures, Exploits, Sprees & Scrapes in the West, & Life and Manners in the Backwoods

Volume 2, No. 1 in this influential series of almanacs containing a variety of tall tales in backwoods dialect, illustrated with wood engravings. This is the fifth Crockett Almanac published in Nashville. The contents include An Unexpected Ride on the Horns of an Elk, Col. Crockett's Adventure With a Grizzly Bear, Judy Finx Whipping a Catamount, Adventure With the Indians and the Mud Turtles, and the utterly racist A Scentoriferous Fight With a Nigger (illustrated on the rear wrapper).

The Crockett almanacs contributed much to the American tradition of the tall tale. "It was the Crockett 'Almanacks' which made Crockett a legendary figure and a part of American folk-lore. The 1839 'Almanac' has a plate on the wrapper title showing Crockett's 'Unexpected Ride on the Horns of an Elk.' This is the issue with the story of Judy Finx riding home from a party on her tame bear, and their successful encounter with a huge snake and a catamount."-Grolier Club, One Hundred Influential Books. As noted by AAS, the publisher's name is fictitious. Harding is a character who appears in the almanac, and is based on Ben Hardin (1784-1852), a Whig Congressman from Kentucky.

REFERENCES: American Imprints 49951; Howes C897; Drake, M. Almanacs, 13414; Allen, R.R. Tennessee, 1462; Grolier, American 100, 39; Streeter 4187.