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

“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