Barnum

May 13, 2019
In this detailed biography, American Scholar editor Wilson (Mathew Brady) portrays Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810–1891) as a complex and versatile businessman undeserving of the shady showman caricature that’s been painted of him. Barnum, born into a family of good-hearted New England practical jokers with a deep respect for others, turned to entertainment in 1835 after pursuing other livelihoods. Early on, he pushed the boundaries of good judgment with “humbuggery... mildly deceitful way to get people in the door,” including the controversial exhibition of Joice Hath, an African-American woman he billed as George Washington’s 161-year-old former nursemaid. He later reinvented himself as a museum operator, newspaper publisher, and the mayor of Bridgeport, Conn., who advocated for equal rights for women and African-Americans. It wasn’t until he was 60 years old that Barnum partnered with circus owners Coup and Castello to create a traveling “museum, menagerie, caravan, and hippodrome.” In workmanlike prose, Wilson describes how, in 1877, Barnum formed “P.T. Barnum’s New and Only Greatest Show on Earth,” and in 1881, he entered a merger with Great London Circus owner James Bailey that resulted in the New York City debut of the Barnum & London Circus (this portion of the narrative is weighed down with legal details), which was eventually renamed Barnum & Bailey Circus. Wilson’s well-researched though dense work shows why even 139 years
after Barnum’s death, he remains a larger-than-life character.

May 15, 2019
Before he became a circus impresario, Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) was already one of the most famous men in America. In an admiring and mostly entertaining biography, American Scholar editor Wilson (Mathew Brady: Portraits of a Nation, 2013, etc.) traces Barnum's flamboyant career through decades of successes, financial scandals, failures, and reinvention. A brash showman, museum owner, sought-after lecturer, real estate developer, banker, Connecticut state legislator, Bridgeport mayor, and bestselling author, Barnum, in all his endeavors, "was a promoter and self-promoter without peer, a relentless advertiser" of events and exhibits that attracted the "feverish interest" of audiences in America and abroad. Drawing liberally on Barnum's several autobiographies and collected letters, the author reprises many familiar episodes, especially his promotion of hoaxes, such as Joice Heth, a blind, toothless African American woman whom Barnum exhibited as a former nursemaid to George Washington; the upper body of a small monkey attached to the lower half of a large fish, which Barnum touted as the "Fejee Mermaid"; and an 18-year-old microcephalic black man whom Barnum dressed in a furry ape costume and exhibited as a missing link between human and animal. Feeding viewers' desire for physical oddities, Barnum featured exhibits of several "small people," such as Charles Stratton, who became General Tom Thumb and eventually married, to great fanfare, a "charming female little person," whom Barnum also put under contract. While acknowledging the racism and exploitation inherent in these exhibits, as well as Barnum's attitudes toward captured wild animals, Wilson gently portrays Barnum as a man of his time. In the 1850s, he pushed in a new direction, proselytizing for the temperance movement and emphasizing the educational benefits of his American Museum. He signed a world-famous Swedish opera singer, Jenny Lind, whose concerts were phenomenal successes. In 1871, Barnum directed his showmanship to "a museum, menagerie, caravan and hippodrome" that marked the beginning of his illustrious circus career. A serviceable introduction to a man who helped shape his culture.

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July 1, 2019

More than 125 years after his death, Phineas Taylor "P.T." Barnum (1810-91) is still referred to as the greatest showman on earth. Here, American Scholar editor Wilson leans toward the positive and relates the acts for which his subject is most remembered: the Swedish Nightingale, General Tom Thumb, and the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Wilson also covers areas for which Barnum is less well known, including his faith and civic engagement, work as an author, temperance campaigning, and ability to overcome adversity. In addressing Barnum's darker side, Wilson discusses exhibits and shows that exploited racist beliefs or blurred the line between real and fake, stating "Barnum embodied some of America's worst impulses, but also many of its best." Wilson further leaves out some of the current research that belies the upright image Barnum cultivated in his later years. VERDICT One of the themes in this work is our country's complex relationship with the truth. Overall, Wilson's skillful portrayal of the multifarious Barnum is affectionate, lucid, and lively, offering a new portrait of Victorian-era America, particularly its curious and playful side. Highly recommended.--Beth Dalton, Littleton, CO

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2019
Step right up folks to read Wilson's (Mathew Brady: Portraits of a Nation, 2014) new accounting of the life of P. T. Barnum. And what an incredibly productive and long life it was. This adroitly written biography delves into Barnum's creativity, entrepreneurialism, public engagement, and resilience in the face of personal tragedies. Wilson highlights some of Barnum's most famous (and infamous) performing acts and business relationships, including Joice Heth, the 161-year-old slave nursemaid to George Washington; General Tom Thumb," the dwarf entertainer; Jenny Lind, the most famous singer of her time, and the Fejee Mermaid, a taxonomic specimen of dubious origin. The notoriety Barnum developed made him an in-demand speaker, often on the subject of Temperance; a popular author, an elected official, and yes, a showman. Civic-minded to the end as Bridgeport, Connecticut's most famous citizen, his largess benefits the city to this day. After decades of managing traveling shows and operating the American Museum in New York, it would be his partnership in a traveling circus that would immortalize his name and seal him in the public's imagination.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)