On the Trail of the Jackalope with Professors Michael P. Branch and Sylvan Goldberg

The Pikes Peak Library District and the Manitou Springs Heritage Center welcome author and professor Michael P. Branch for a talk and presentation on his new book, On the Trail of the Jackalope: How a Legend Captured the World’s Imagination and Helped Us Cure Cancer, published with Pegasus Books on March 1^st, 2022.  We also welcome Sylvan Goldberg, professor of English at Colorado College, who will be joining Professor Branch for the presentation and conversation. 

This is 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.

The book asks an incredible question— How did jackalopes help cure cancer?—and tells the fascinating (and educational!) answer: 

Around the time the two young boys were creating the first fake jackalope in Wyoming, Dr. Richard Shope, a Princeton, New Jersey-based virologist, was making his 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 anti-viral cancer therapies. The most important of these is the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which protects against multiple kinds of cancer—that’s right, jackalopes are helping us cure cancer.

Copies of Professor Branch's book will be available for purchase and signing.