Alexander Botts and the Earthworm Tractor: Vol. 1-5

Purchase volumes 1-5 of the series Alexander Botts and the Earthworm Tractor, complete with their original illustrations. 

Welcome to the world of Alexander Botts and Earthworm Tractors, a series of humorous short stories about a bumbling salesman’s trials and tribulations selling crawler tractors.

Alexander Botts was created in 1927 by author William Hazlett Upson, and the stories are based on Upson’s work as a factory assembler and sales demonstrator for the Caterpillar Tractor Company. For almost half a century, Botts was beloved by The Saturday Evening Post readers in more than 100 short stories. This book includes the original illustrations that appeared with the stories in The Saturday Evening Post, and is part of a series that will be the first to present the entire collection.

In the first volume, Botts Begins, Botts talks his way into a job selling Earthworm Tractors for The Farmers’ Friend Tractor Company. His unusual sales tactics send the machines through impervious swamps, murky lakes, and high snowbanks. His schemes consistently backfire but, in the end, he never fails to close the deal!

In volume 2, Botts Abroad, Botts and his new bride travel to Europe on a special assignment to bring the solid, American-made machines to the Old World! Nicknamed “Gadget” because of her usefulness, Mrs. Botts proves to be as resourceful as her husband in cleverly closing deals in ancient cities previously thought to have no market for crawler tractors.

In volume 3, Botts Breaks Hollywood, the saga continues for our hero who, always ahead of his time, sees filmmaking as the future of tractor sales. Botts earns a promotion and is eager to share his enthusiasm for crawler tractors on the silver screen where his outrageous antics and blunders collide to capture the perfect shot!

In volume 4, Queen of the North, Botts promises a demonstration of a new, high-speed tractor that was not yet in existence. Unwilling to backpedal on a promise, he outfits a sturdy Earthworm tractor with an aviation motor and creates a beast equipped to conquer Canada’s deep snow and steep mountains.

In volume 5, Botts Goes to War, Botts calls it quits and joins the US army and applies his knowledge of Earthworm tractors to the war effort. Throughout the book, he encounters shortages of necessary materials, including rubber tires, cable, structural steel, and even civilian housing. Botts responds to each situation with characteristically unique and ill-advised approaches, such as sinking a tractor not once but twice to hide it from competitors or using priceless one-hundred-year old apple liqueur as fuel. Whether he finds success or failure so devastating that he is shipped off to another command, he survived to take on another assignment.

Alexander Botts and his Earthworm Tractor will charm readers young and old and entertain with innocent mayhem, timeless humor, and twists of fate.