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On the Trail of the Jackalope: How a Legend Captured the World’s Imagination and Helped Us Cure Cancer Audiobook
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The never-before-told story of the horned rabbit—the myths, the hoaxes, the very real scientific breakthrough it inspired—and how it became a cultural touchstone of the American West.
Just what is a jackalope? Purported to be part jackrabbit and part antelope, the jackalope began as a local joke concocted by two young brothers in a small Wyoming town during the Great Depression. Their creation quickly spread around the US, where it now regularly appears as innumerable forms of kitsch wall mounts, postcards, keychains, coffee mugs, shot glasses, and so on. A vast body of folk narratives has carried the jackalope’s fame around the world to inspire art, music, film, even erotica!
Although the jackalope is an invention of the imagination, it is nevertheless connected to actual horned rabbits, which exist in nature and have for centuries been collected and studied by naturalists. Around the time the two young boys were creating the first jackalope in Wyoming, Dr. Richard Shope was making his first breakthrough about the cause of the horns: a virus. When the virus that causes rabbits to grow “horns” (a keratinous carcinoma) was first genetically sequenced in 1984, oncologists were able to use that genetic information to make remarkable, field-changing advances in the development of antiviral cancer therapies. The most important of these is the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which protects against cervical and other cancers. Today, jackalopes are literally helping us cure cancer.
For fans of David Quammen’s The Song of the Dodo, Jon Mooallem’s Wild Ones, or Jeff Meldrum's Sasquatch, Michael P. Branch's remarkable On the Trail of the Jackalope is an entertaining and enlightening road trip through the heart of America.
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“Branch has a good deal to say about one of nature’s stranger animals and also deeply ponders the mythological form, wondering why people dream up jackalopes and other fanciful creatures in the first place.”
— Wall Street Journal
Quotes
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"I highly recommend On the Trail of the Jackalope. It’s an excellent collection of well-told yarns and a fine piece of medical history reporting.”
— Forbes -
“[A] charming travelogue.”
— Booklist -
“What kept me turning the pages is Michael Branch’s smart, raucous discussions of tall folktales, elaborate hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and fanciful acts of taxidermy.”
— Elena Passarello, author of Animals Strike Curious Poses
Awards
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Longlisted for the Reading the West Book Award for Nonfiction
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About Michael P. Branch
Michael P. Branch s the author of How to Cuss in Western, Raising Wild, Rants from the Hill, Reading the Roots, and On the Trail of the Jackalope. He is a professor of literature and environment at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he teaches creative nonfiction, American literature, environmental studies, and film studies.
About Eric G. Dove
Eric G. Dove is a multiple Earphones Award–winning narrator, and his credits include more than one hundred audiobooks. He is also an accomplished musician and a budding author, who published Ghosts of Royston in 2013. He is a graduate of Ohio State University.