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.