Title: P.T. Barnum : the legend and the man /
Authors: Saxon, A. H.
Publisher: Columbia University Press,
Year: 1989
Subjects: Barnum, P. T.; Circus owners United States Biography
Abstract: From the Publisher: I believe hugely in advertising and blowing my own trumpet, beating the gongs, drums, to attract attention to a show, Phineas Taylor Barnum wrote to a publisher in 1860. "I don't believe in 'duping the public, ' but I believe in first attracting and then pleasing them." The name P.T. Barnum is virtually synonymous with the fine art of self-advertisement and the apocryphal statement, "There's a sucker born every minute." Nearly a century after his death, Barnum remains one of America's most celebrated figures. In the Selected Letters of P.T. Barnum, A.H. Saxon brings together more than 300 letters written by the self-styled "Prince of Humbugs." Here we see him, opinionated and exuberant, with only the rarest flashes of introspection and self-doubt, haggling with business partners, blustering over politics, and attempting to get such friends as Mark Twain to endorse his latest schemes.^
Contents: Illustrations -- Prologue -- 1: Life in progress -- 2: Bethal -- 3: Religion of healthy-mindedness -- 4: Showman Barnum -- 5: Wonders of God's universe -- 6: Of mermaids and the man in miniature -- 7: Universal yankee -- 8: Finer things -- 9: Bridgeport and bankruptcy -- 10: Pro bono publico -- 11: New beginning -- 12: Crowning efforts -- 13: Children's friend and jumbo -- 14: Sun of the amusement world -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Barnum aprocrypha -- Notes -- Selected bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index of persons.