This was not my usual reading fare, but I was intrigued, as my vague knowledge of this man was that he coined famous phrases such as 'There's one born every minute'. However he does not allude to that in his autobiography, but his career perhaps demonstrates it.

As an autobiography it is rather bitty and rambling and the beginning consists mostly of accounts of practical jokes the males of the community where he grew up played on each other - women were mostly excluded it seems. But Barnum's grandfather was a great one for this and also for speculation of various kinds - he was involved in state lotteries for example, where big commissions could be made - and the young Barnum, named after his grandfather Phineas, took after him. From an early age young Barnum did not enjoy working for a salary but instead wanted to make money for himself and try out various schemes. Some were more successful than others, and in some he made money only to lose it through being swindled or having employees who absconded.

As time went on, Barnum moved into the entertainment business as a manager, and he toured the United States with various acts including dancers, jugglers etc, and was involved with circuses. Eventually he engaged a young boy who had a growth problem and, calling this boy General Tom Thumb, enjoyed great success touring the States and then the United Kingdom and Europe where the boy was a great favourite with the royalty of those countries as well as the public at large. Having amassed quite a fortune through this, and hearing of a singer called Jenny Lind who was nicknamed the Swedish Nightingale, he set out to convince her, through one of his agents, to sign on with very favourable terms for a large tour of concerts. Quite a chunk of the book details his travels with her.

As well as this, he managed to obtain a museum in New York where he exhibited various curiosities and made it into a great success. This was an age where the public craved marvels and novelties as shown by the way they flocked to see a young boy with a growth problem singing, dancing and acting out various characters plus being driven around in small carriage driven by Shetland ponies. Earlier on Barnum had taken an financial share in an elderly black woman who had been presented to him as the nurse of George Washington and had toured her around the country - the woman came from the southern States and was in effect sold to him and a partner. This and the idea of the boy being objects that people went to gawp at, is by modern standards very distasteful, but this simply was not the mindset in the period up to 1850 or so where the book finishes. Things were very politically non correct and this has to be borne in mind by the modern reader: Barnum's attitudes were no different to anyone else of his day apart from a few enlightened people who, for example, were campaigning for the abolition of slavery.

One interesting point is that Barnum was engaged as a public speaker over the years, either on the subject of religion or on the temperance movement - he had signed the pledge and become teetotal and was part of the huge movement that eventually led to Prohibition.

On one page, after telling of an attraction which he had arranged where the routine exaggeration or changing of minor facts was done to make it more of a draw to the public (one example is a team of bell ringers from Lancashire who he persuaded to dress as Swiss men and be billed as such - when one objected that they didn't speak any language but English, he assured them it would be fine because no one in America could understand their accent anyway!), he goes on to speak of how great a comfort Christianity has been to him without a suggestion of awareness that he routinely broke the commandment not to bear false witness! The irony of this appears entirely to pass him by.

Due to his association with various attractions over the years including the "Fejee mermaid" - a skillful sewing together of a mummified monkey and a fish probably done in Japan as he deduced - and similar such things, he had a huge reputation for 'humbug' as it was called. But people of that age didn't really resent having the wool pulled over their eyes. Instead, they admired his cleverness in doing so.

So it is an uneven read, and a bit dull or dry in places, but there are also some interesting insights into the mentality of life in the USA in the first part of the nineteenth century. For that reason I rate it at 3 stars. ( )

Barnum, Phineas T (Subject)

This is definitely a piece of historical Americana written with such bloated, self-adulating pomp concealed behind false modesty (a common affliction of the time, and reminiscent of Rousseau's own "confessions") that one almost believes that it is tongue in cheek. Barnum explains, without remorse, his pioneering of humbugs concerning some of his most famous acts such as Joice Heth the 161-year old woman, the "Feejee" mermaid, and Charles Stratton aka Tom Thumb.

Barnum was a whimsical schemer, drifting from one enterprise to the next. He also makes a point of insisting to the reader his moral virtues, and the importance morality (such as teetotalerism) plays in his life. He is most definitely the unacknowledged and shrewd precursor to the art of public relations. ( )

Fun and engaging--this is well worth the time and exploration. I recommend this edition. ( )

First, I should say that this book lost a full star because of the given introduction. First, Whalen's intro is one of those that should be read only after the full text has been explored--otherwise, it taints the reader's thoughts beforehand and gives entirely too much away. Second, it's a cynical and overly judgmental view of the text; in all truth, I have a hard time imagining a reader who could read the intro of this text and then have any desire to move on to the text itself. I always have trouble understanding why a publisher will occasionally elect to include an intro written by someone who obviously doesn't think the text itself worthwhile, but there you have it. I don't recommend this introduction, unless you explore it afterwards as a way of solidifying your own thoughts on Barnum.

As to the text, it's fun and engaging, well worth the read. Barnum keeps in mind his audience at all times, as well as what curiosities may have led them to pick up his autobiography. While you might read this book in small doses or in one long read like a traditional autobiography, it's a pleasure of a text either way. ( )