Star­tling inventions!
Lit­tle-known tribespeople!
Jum­bo ele­phants, skele­ton col­lec­tions, and mermaids!

Come one, come all to this larg­er-than-life biog­ra­phy of P. T. Bar­num, show­man and founder of the Bar­num & Bai­ley Cir­cus. Vis­it Barnum’s Amer­i­can Muse­um, estab­lished in only four weeks! Meet Madame Joseph Clof­fu­lia, the Swiss beard­ed lady. Get to know Tom Thumb, a minia­ture man (only thir­ty-nine inch­es tall), and his even tinier bride (thir­ty-two inch­es). Lis­ten to the smack! smack! smack! as cir­cus tent poles are pound­ed into the ground. Watch, cap­ti­vat­ed, as the cir­cus parade goes by, ele­phants tail to trunk, cos­tumed per­form­ers wav­ing, lions yawn­ing. Then, under the big top, as Bar­num steps into the spot­light, cast your eyes on the cen­ter ring and pre­pare to be amazed.

Can­dace Flem­ing, award-win­ning author of The Lin­colns, Our Eleanor, and Ben Franklin’s Almanac, per­fect­ly cap­tures the spir­it of an era, the spir­it of the cir­cus, and the spir­it of P.T. Bar­num him­self. Draw­ing on old cir­cus posters, pho­tographs, etch­ings, tick­et stubs, play­bills — and with type and dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments through­out inspired by nine­teenth-cen­tu­ry designs — this book presents his­to­ry as it’s nev­er been expe­ri­enced before — a stu­pen­dous, tremen­dous, show-stop­ping event!