The Life of P. T. Barnum

by Barnum, P. T.

• ISBN13: 9780252069024
• ISBN10: 0252069021
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

"For more than fifty years, Phineas T. Barnum embodied all that was grand and fraudulent in American mass culture. Over the course of a life that spanned the nineteenth century (1810-91), he inflicted himself upon a surprisingly willing public in a variety of guises, from newspaper editor (or libeler) to traveling showman (or charlatan) and distinguished public benefactor (or shameless hypocrite).Barnum deliberately cultivated his ambiguous public image through a lifelong advertising campaign, shrewdly exploiting the cultural and technological capabilities of the new publishing industry. While running his numerous shows and exhibitions, Barnum managed to publish newspaper articles, exposs of fraud (not his own), self-help tracts, and a series of best-selling autobiographies, each promising to give ""the true history of my many adventures."" Updated editions ofThe Life of P. T. Barnumappeared regularly, allowing Barnum to keep up with demand and prune the narrative of details that might offend posterity. The present volume is the first modern edition of Barnum's original and outrageous autobiography, published in 1855 and unavailable for more than a century. Brazen, confessional, and immensely entertaining, it immortalizes the showman who hoodwinked customers into paying to hear the reminiscences of a woman presented as George Washington's 161-year-old nurse, the impresario who brought Jenny Lind to America and toured Europe with General Tom Thumb, and the grand entrepreneur of the American Museum of New York. Above all, it ensures that Barnum would be properly remembered . . . exactly as he created himself."

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Terence Whalen
THE LIFE OF P.T. BARNUM, Written by Himself
Preface	7	(2)
Introductory	9	(3)
My Early History	12	(16)
Clerk in a Store---Anecdotes	28	(15)
Sunday-School---Old Meeting-House	43	(12)
Anecdotes with an Episode	55	(19)
A Batch of Incidents	74	(32)
Incidents and Various Schemes	106	(36)
Struggling---Joice Heth---Vivalla	142	(35)
The Travelling Circus	177	(37)
The American Museum	214	(32)
European Tour---Tom Thumb	246	(50)
The Jenny Lind Enterprise	296	(48)
``Side Shows''---Buffalo Hunt, Etc.	344	(15)
Temperance and Agriculture	359	(20)
Sundry Business Enterprises	379