Alexander Botts: Great Stories from the Saturday Evening Post

Alexander Botts #10

by William Hazlett Upson

Book by William Hazlett Upson

Genres: Humor, Essays, Short Stories

309 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is classic American humor in the tradition established by Harte, Twain, O. Henry, Lardner,and Runyon. The stories consist of correspondence between an egotistical but likeable tractor salesman and his boss. The tales are full of slapstick, irony, and outright farce.

[Stephy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up in the fifties, when The Saturday Evening Post was publishing these William Hazlett Upson stories about Alexander Botts and the Earthworm Tractor Company on a monthly basis. They are genuinely well crafted stories, each of them complete unto themselves. We all waited with bated breath for the magazine to arrive. At some point The Saturday Evening Post just disappeared, I think it was in the late sixties. Someone revived it, I think, but it wasn't the same at all. The Alexander Botts stories are as much fun to re-read as they were the first times through.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious series of stories that ran over 50 years. Botts is a traveling tractor salesman, who leaps before he looks, and has a habit of getting into all kinds of trouble because he thinks he's smarter than everyone else. Yet somehow he always manages to come through. The stories are told completely in sales report letters he must send to his boss. A very enjoyable read, and as it's similar to a series of short stories, a great book for quick reads here and there.

[Patrick Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

8 Aug. 2019 - This is not the exact edition I read about 35 years ago, but it is the basic book.

Great memories of these very funny, clever stories from the Saturday Evening Post.

All about a salesman for the Earthworm Tractor Co. and how clever he was to beat the unscrupulous competition and serve the customer better.

Love the ethic and the humor.

Lots of fun from a bygone era, but with timeless prose, wisdom and humor.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good clean fun here. Botts is the self-proclaimed world’s greatest salesman and an uncontrollable loose cannon with about equal skill in getting himself into messes and getting himself out of them. He appeared in over a hundred stories in the Post from the late 1920s up to the 70s, so the twenty stories here are just the tip of the iceberg of his total appearances there.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a charming collection of short stories about a tractor salesman. They are very well written, and the main character (Alexander Botts) is hilarious. It is very interesting seeing how simple things used to be, and how manners and customs have changed over the years.