"Robert Wilson's Barnum, the first full-dress biography in twenty
years, eschews clichés for a more nuanced story...It is a life for our
times, and the biography Barnum deserves." --The Wall Street Journal
P.T. Barnum is the greatest showman the world has ever seen. As a
creator of the Barnum & Baily Circus and a champion of wonder, joy,
trickery, and "humbug," he was the founding father of American
entertainment--and as Robert Wilson argues, one of the most important
figures in American history.
Nearly 125 years after his death, the name P.T. Barnum still inspires
wonder. Robert Wilson's vivid new biography captures the full genius,
infamy, and allure of the ebullient showman, who, from birth to death,
repeatedly reinvented himself. He learned as a young man how to wow
crowds, and built a fortune that placed him among the first millionaires
in the United States. He also suffered tragedy, bankruptcy, and fires
that destroyed his life's work, yet willed himself to recover and
succeed again. As an entertainer, Barnum courted controversy throughout
his life--yet he was also a man of strong convictions, guided in his
work not by a desire to deceive, but an eagerness to thrill and bring
joy to his audiences. He almost certainly never uttered the infamous
line, "There's a sucker born every minute," instead taking pride in
giving crowds their money's worth and more.
Robert Wilson, editor of The American Scholar, tells a gripping story
in Barnum, one that's imbued with the same buoyant spirit as the man
himself. In this "engaging, insightful, and richly researched new
biography" (New York Journal of Books), Wilson adeptly makes the case
for P.T. Barnum's place among the icons of American history, as a figure
who represented, and indeed created, a distinctly American sense of
optimism, industriousness, humor, and relentless energy.
