Flashback: 1835

Like any pennywise publication, the Almanack will occasionally feature “encore presentations” (yeah, okay, they’re reprints) from our illustrious history. Think of it as recycling.

Pictured here is the cover of our special Collector’s Item 1st Issue. This particular run of Almanacks is called the Nashville Series because it claimed to be published there. Was it really? Historians don’t know, and neither do I. Davy knows, of course, but he’s not telling.

What follows is the introduction to that first issue, purportedly written by old Davy himself. Did he really write it? Again, he won't say. But by the twinkle in his eye, I can tell he likes it.

“Go Ahead” Reader

Arter the great fuss the public have made about an individual of my humble pretensions, and the mighty deal of attention and good cheer which I have received in all sections of the country, where I have been ahead, my heart has swelled as big as a Bison’s, with pure gratitude. To repay all this, I mean to amuse them with some of my adventures with the wild varments and colts of the West, and with the adventures of the backwoodsmen generally.

Owing to the partiality of my fellow citizens, I have been made a Congressman, and am from home (at Washington) half the year; but should any of my readers find me “at home” on the Big Clover Creek, Tennessee, they shall be treated with a good raccoon pie, and bush eels (i.e. rattlesnakes) fried in butter—which are dishes my wife cooks to parfection. They shall have the softest white-oak log to sit on, and the best bearskin to sleep on, which my house affords. I will take them out on a coon hunt, show ‘em how to tree a catamount, and take a blizzard at a bear. They can take a walk in my crab-apple orchard, and see the alligator pear trees. And as a plain matter of fact, I will convince them that I can run faster, —jump higher, —squat lower, —dive deeper, —stay under longer, —and come out drier, than any man in the whole country.