Almanach

1860 · WRCAM41779 — New York: B.L. Judson & Co. 1860. 24pp. Original yellow printed wrappers. Spine mostly perished. Some chipping and tears to wrappers. Very minor soiling. Good. A rare patent-medicine almanac reprinting the story of an herbalist's rescue of Tula the Aztec princess likely fabricated to promote the sale of Judson's various medicaments. Originally printed in 1859 by the same publisher the almanac recounts the story of the "wealthy herbalist Dr. Cunard who with a trapper named Du Bois or Hawk Eye spent seven years trapping and travelling throughout the Far West. The doctor had a number of unusual experiences not the least of which was his single-handed defiance of the Navajo Tribe as they were about to burn Tula the Aztec princess at the stake. This was accomplished by capitalizing on the fortuitous imminence of a total eclipse of which the good doctor knew after consulting his handy little almanac. The Navajo chief was as confounded as Merlin in an earlier day and promptly gave up not only Tula but also his secret mountain-herb recipe. A trapper's testimonial direct from St. Louis concludes this 'True Account'" - Eberstadt. The almanac seems to have been published for only about four years 1860- 63 although the advertisement/story does appear in a few other almanacs as well. OCLC locates only one copy of the 1861 almanac and only one of most of the others as well at the Rochester Museum and Science Center. Rare and interesting. EBERSTADT 127:215 ref. B.L. Judson & Co. unknown books