George Lippard’s book Legends of Mexico is a sensationalist chronicle of General Zachary Taylor’s victories in the Mexican-American War. The stories first appeared serially in the spring of 1847 in two Philadelphia newspapers, Scott’s Weekly and the Saturday Courier, and were published as a book by T.B. Peterson in August 1847. The old man with a broad chest and face bronzed by the sun and toil of thirty eight years of battle service –a constant and heroic presence in these seven tales of romance, blood, and sacrifice–went on to become president of the United States in 1849.

Edited (introduction and annotations) by Nichol Allen, Patrick Ayres, Scott Both, Brendon Floyd, William Geiger, Aimee Lafrance, Cassandra Lampitt, Shannan Mason, Alice Morgan, Kendyl Schmidt, Phillip Schneider, Jason Stacy, Louis Thuet, Tyler Young.