Bibliography
BOOKS BY BARNUM
Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself. First edition, New York, 1855. Revised and published in various editions under this title until 1890.
Struggles and Triumphs, or Forty Years’ Recollections of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself. The same as the Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself, with additions and revisions. Published under this title, 1869, 1872, 1882.
How I Made Millions, or The Secret of Success, by P. T. Barnum. 1884. The Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself under another title.
Funny Stories Told by P. T. Barnum. London, 1890. A collection of anecdotes from the autobiography.
Dollars and Sense, or How to Get On, by P. T. Barnum. Chicago, 1890. Anecdotes from the autobiography and excerpts from lectures.
Dick Broadhead, by P. T. Barnum. New York, 1888. A juvenile book of adventure. Written by the circus press agent and published under Barnum’s name.
Jack in the Jungle, by P. T. Barnum. New York, 1880. A juvenile story of adventure with wild animals. Also written by the press agent of the circus.
Lion Jack, by P. T. Barnum. New York, 1887. “A Story of Perilous Adventures Among Wild Men and The Capturing of Wild Beasts; Showing How Menageries Are Made.” Also written by the press agent of the circus.
The Wild Beasts, Birds, and Reptiles of the World, The Story of Their Capture, by P. T. Barnum. Chicago, 1888. Written for Barnum by the press agent of the circus, but contains a preface and a last chapter by Barnum.
Barnum’s New Year’s Address. A pamphlet. New York, 1851. Written for Barnum by John Vose, editor of the New York Picayune.
The Humbugs of the World, by P. T. Barnum. New York, 1866.
Why I am a Universalist, by P. T. Barnum. Universalist Tracts, 1895.
The Will of P. T. Barnum. A pamphlet. Bridgeport, Conn., 1891.
Blackwood’s Magazine. London, 1855. Review of the Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself.
Christian Review. New York, Vol. 20, 1855. Review of the Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself.
Fraser’s Magazine. London, 1855. Review of the Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself.
Southern Literary Messenger. Richmond, Va., 1855. Review of the Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself.
New York Illustrated News. 1853. The newspaper Barnum owned for one year. Contains references to his temperance activities.
The World. New York newspaper. January 17, 1897. An article on Barnum’s morals.
To Republicans, a circular in opposition to the nomination of P. T. Barnum as a representative of the Fourth District of Connecticut.
BOOKS BY OTHER AUTHORS
Abbott, Lyman. Reminiscences. Contains material on Jenny Lind’s concerts.
Abbott, Lyman. Silhouettes of My Contemporaries. Contains an essay on P. T. Barnum.
Aldrich, Mrs. T. B. Crowding Memories, p. 243.
Arnold, Matthew. Letters of Matthew Arnold. Vol. 2. 1896.
Baker, Sir Samuel W. Wild Beasts and Their Ways, Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. London, 1890.
Barnum, Mrs. Nancy Fish. The Last Chapter: In Memoriam P. T. Barnum. Privately printed, 1891.
Barnum’s Parnassus. Being Confidential Disclosures of the Prize Committee on the Jenny Lind Song. “With Specimens of the Leading American Poets in the Happiest Effulgence of Their Genius. Respectfully Dedicated to the American Eagle.” New York, 1850. Parodies Written by William Allen Butler, author of “Nothing to Wear.”
Bennett, James Gordon. Memoirs of James Gordon Bennett and His Times by a Journalist. New York, 1855.
Benson and Esher. The Letters of Queen Victoria, edited by Benson and Esher. Vol. 2. Contains material on Jenny Lind in England.
Benton, Joel. Life of Phineas T. Barnum. New York, 1891. This is the Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself with no new material, published the year Barnum died by a friend, who changed the first person singular to the third person singular.
Benton, Joel. P. T. Barnum, Showman and Humorist. Century Magazine, August, 1902.
Bleeker, Sylvester. General Tom Thumb’s Three Years’ Tour Around the World, Accompanied by His Wife, Lavinia Warren Stratton, Commodore Nutt, Miss Minnie Warren and Party. New York, 1872.
Bremer, Fredrika. The Homes of the World; Impressions of America. Two volumes. New York, 1858. Jenny Lind material.
Brown, Maria Ward. The Life of Dan Rice. Long Branch, N. J., 1901.
Bunn, Alfred. The Case of Bunn versus Lind, Tried at the Court of Queen’s Bench, Guildhall, City, Before Mr. Justice Erle and a Special Jury, on Tuesday, February 22nd, 1848, Given in Full, from Shorthand Notes Taken at the Time, with a Series of Letters from Plaintiff and Defendant, Produced Thereat, with Others from Both, Now for the First Time Published, to which are added Notes Explanatory and Critical by Alfred Bunn. London, 1848.
Carlyle, Thomas. New Letters of Thomas Carlyle. London, 1904. Contains accounts of Jenny Lind concerts.
Conklin, George. The Ways of the Circus. New York, 1921.
Coup, W. C. Chapters from the Autobiography of W. C. Coup. New York, 187—.
Coup, W. C. Sawdust and Spangles. Chicago, 1901.
Crosby, C. Fred. The Early Days of Barnum’s “Greatest on Earth,” in The Billboard. January 22, 1922.
Dickens, Charles. American Notes.
Emerson, Edward Waldo. The Early Years of the Saturday Club.
Field, Maunsell B. Memories of Many Men and Some Women. New York, 1874.
Ford, James L. Forty-odd Years in the Literary Shop. New York, 1921.
Foster, C. G. Memoir of Jenny Lind. New York, 1850.
Frith, W. P. My Autobiography and Reminiscences. New York, 1888.
George, Henry, Jr. Life of Henry George. New York, 1900.
Ghio, Madame. Biography of Madame Ghio, the Celebrated Swiss Bearded Lady and Her Son, Esau. Pamphlet. Glasgow, 1866.
Haines, George W. Plays, Players, and Playgoers. Reminiscences of Barnum. New York, 1874.
Hawthorne, Julian. Hawthorne and His Wife. Contains reference to Jenny Lind.
Haydon, Benjamin Robert. Autobiography of Benjamin Robert Haydon. Edited by Tom Taylor. London, 1853. Vol. 3.
Holland, H. S., and Rockstro, W. S. Memoir of Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt, Her Early Art-Life and Dramatic Career, 1820–1851. London, 1891.
Hone, Philip. The Diary of Philip Hone, 1828–1851. Edited by Bayard Tuckerman. Two volumes. New York, 1889. Contains material on Jenny Lind in New York.
Hornblow, Arthur. A History of the Theater in America.
Irving, Pierre M. Life and Letters of Washington Irving. New York, 1869. Three volumes.
Jerome, Chauncey. History of the American Clock Business and Life of Chauncey Jerome. Written by Himself. Barnum’s Connection with the Yankee Clock Business. New Haven, Conn., 1860.
Jumbo. A picture folder for children, with verses. London, 1882.
Lamb, Mrs. Martha J. History of the City of New York.
Lamb, Mrs. Martha J. Wall Street in History.
Le Roux and Garnier. Acrobats and Mountebanks. London, 1890.
Lind, Jenny. Press Books of the Jenny Lind Centennial Celebration. Jenny Lind Centennial Committee. 1920.
Longfellow, Samuel. Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with Extracts from His Journals and Correspondence. Vol. 2.
Nutt, Commodore, History of. Pamphlet. New York, 1862.
Paine, Albert Bigelow. Mark Twain, A Biography. Vols. 1 and 3.
Pond, Major J. B. Eccentricities of Genius. New York, 1900.
Rischbieth, H., and Amy Barrington. Dwarfism. Francis Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics. Eugenics Laboratory Memoirs XV. Treasury for Human Inheritance, Parts VII and VIII, Section XV A. London, 1912.
Rosenberg, C. G. Jenny Lind’s Tour Through America and Cuba. New York, 1851.
Sights and Wonders in New York, including a description of the mysteries, miracles, marvels, phenomena, curiosities, and nondescripts contained in that great Congress of Wonders, Barnum’s Museum, also a Memoir of Barnum Himself. New York, 1849.
Smith, Sol. The Theatrical Journey—Work and Anecdotal Recollections. Philadelphia, 1854. Long dedicatory epistle to Barnum.
Smyth, Albert H. Bayard Taylor. Boston, 1896.
Spangled World, A, or Life with the Circus. New York, 1882.
Stoddard, Richard Henry. Recollections Personal and Literary. New York, 1903.
Stowe, Charles Edward. Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Letters from Jenny Lind to Mrs. Stowe.
Taylor, Marie Hansen, and Horace E. Scudder. Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor.
Thackeray. A Collection of Thackeray Letters, 1847–1855. New York, 1887.
Thayer, William Roscoe. Life of John Hay.
Thumb, Thomas, Life and Travels of, in the United States, England, France, and Belgium. Philadelphia, 1849. A book for children.
Trollope, Mrs. Domestic Manners of the Americans. London, 1832.
Upton, George P. Musical Memories. My Recollections of Celebrities of the Half Century 1850–1900. New York, 1908.
Warner, Morris H. The Barnum Budget, or Tent Topics. New York, 1887.
Warren, Lavinia. Autobiographical article by Lavinia Warren in The Sunday Magazine, Sept. 16, 1906.
Willis, N. P. Memoranda for the Life of Jenny Lind. New York, 1850.
Wood, Edward J. Giants and Dwarfs. London, 1868.
NEWSPAPERS AND MISCELLANEOUS MATERIAL
P. T. Barnum’s Advance program notes for the circus seasons of 1876, 1879, 1880, 1882, 1889.
New York Herald, New York Morning Courier and Enquirer, The Evening Post, New York Sun, New York Tribune for various periods from 1841 until 1891.
The Times, London, for 1858, 1882, 1890.
Illustrated London News for 1844, 1845.
Bridgeport Daily Standard, Bridgeport, Conn., for various periods.
Bridgeport Farmer, Bridgeport, Conn., for various periods.
The Spirit of the Times, a New York newspaper, Sept., 1850, and June 14, 1851.
Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch, Sept., 1850, and February, 1852.
Encyclopedia Britannica. Articles on Barnum, Giants and Dwarfs, Benjamin Robert Haydon.
Footnotes
1 From Sea to Sea, by Rudyard Kipling. American edition, Doubleday, Page & Co. P. 175.
2 Autograph letter. Gordon L. Ford Collection, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, New York Public Library. This letter bears no date, but since Barnum mentions that he will be in Charleston, S. C., it was possibly written during the Jenny Lind tour in 1850. There is no trace of the Mr. Baker to whom it is addressed, or of his letters to Barnum.
3 It is interesting in this connection that during the late war a spiritual medium visited Mr. Leonidas Westervelt, a collector of material on Barnum, with the information that she had been in communication with the showman. His spirit told the medium: “Look out for the Germans. Remember, the first man who cheated me was a German.” The first man who cheated Barnum was his grandfather; but he doubtless forgot that in the harmony of his extra-mundane existence.
4 Editors sometimes sold their commendations, and Barnum frequently paid for his publicity in advertising. The following note from Barnum to Gordon L. Ford, business manager of the New York Tribune under Whitelaw Reid, speaks all too clearly for itself:
“New York, March 24, 1873.
“My dear Mr. Ford:
“Pray don’t fail to have a good notice given in your Weekly which will contain our big illustrated advertisement and oblige
“P. T. Barnum.”
Autograph letter. Gordon L. Ford Collection, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, New York Public Library.
5 Illustrated London News, August 31, 1844.
6 Autograph Letter in the Theater Collection, Harvard College Library. General Tom Thumb in this letter, one of the few letters he wrote that are extant, gives his official age, according to Barnum, and not his actual birth year. He was born on January 11, 1838, but since Barnum had added six years to his age when he first exhibited him, the General retained that method of calculation carefully for many years. He is the only stage celebrity known who found it to his advantage to increase his age. This letter was written when the General was nine years old.
7 Memoir of Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt: Her Early Art-Life and Dramatic Career. 1820–1851. From Original Documents, Letters, MS. Diaries, &c., Collected by Mr. Otto Goldschmidt (her husband). By Henry Scott Holland and W. S. Rockstro. Two volumes. London: John Murray, 1891.
8 Bayard Taylor, by Albert H. Smyth, pp. 82–83. Houghton Mifflin, 1896.
9 Letter from Julia Knapp to Miss Susan N. Knapp, Greenwich, Conn. In the collection of Leonidas Westervelt.
10 The Early Years of the Saturday Club, by Edward Waldo Emerson, p. 101.
11 In Samuel Butler, A Memoir, by Henry Festing Jones, p. 126, Vol. II, there is a characteristic anecdote of Otto Goldschmidt. It concerns Goldschmidt and W. R. Rockstro, who taught Samuel Butler and Henry Festing Jones harmony and counterpoint, and who was one of the authors of Memoir of Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt. Jones writes:
“During the time we knew him [Rockstro], but I forget precisely when, he fell from the top of an omnibus near South Kensington Station. Otto Goldschmidt... came to see him in the hospital, and Rockstro told Goldschmidt all about the accident. Goldschmidt would not believe him and said:
“‘You don’t mean to tell me you fell off from the top of the bus down to the ground?’
“‘Yes, I do,’ said Rockstro, ‘right off from the top down to the ground, and they took me into the pastrycook’s before bringing me here.’
“Next day Goldschmidt went to see Rockstro again and said:
“‘I find you are quite right. I have been to the pastrycook’s and you actually did fall from the top of the bus to the road.’
“Butler was amused when he heard this, and made the wicked comment that as Otto Goldschmidt had known Rockstro nearly all his life he ought to have been able to form a correct idea of his truthfulness without calling at the pastrycook’s for confirmation.”
12 Autograph Letter in the collection of Leonidas Westervelt, New York.
13 New York Tribune, July 2, 1853.
14 History of the American Clock Business for the Past Sixty Years, and Life of Chauncey Jerome, Written by Himself; Barnum’s Connection with the Yankee Clock Business. New Haven, 1860.
15 Barnum had persuaded General Tom Thumb and other performers to give benefit performances for the Mountain Grove Cemetery in Bridgeport.
16 The accounts of Barnum’s supplementary proceedings are taken from the New York Tribune for March, 1856, where they were published daily from the stenographic records.
17 Barnum verified this account of General Tom Thumb’s proposal by the confirmations of both the General and Lavinia Warren.
18 Bridgeport Daily Standard, March 24, 1875.
19 Autograph Letter in the Harvard Theater Collection, Harvard College Library.
20 Major J. B. Pond in his book, Eccentricities of Genius, described the interior of “Waldemere” as “a museum of itself.” “All the gems of the old museum that were of extraordinary interest as curios were to be seen there. Although he cared nothing especially for rare paintings, the things that he gathered about him seemed designed to attract the eye rather than the ear or the finer qualities of the mind.” P. 352.
21 There are persistent rumors of Barnum’s moral irregularity. Men have told me that he was “an old devil,” which in the salty manner in which they deliver the dictum sounds more enticing than degrading. These rumors are so persistent as to be worthy of mention—on the principle of the co-existence of smoke and fire—but they are also so vague as not to be worth much in the tracing of his character.
The New York World of January 17, 1897, more than five years after Barnum’s death, printed a long Sunday feature article on his moral character. According to the World story, he had an illegitimate son, whose mother was a French actress performing at the American Museum. Barnum, according to the World, educated the boy, who later became a physician. Before Barnum’s second marriage, said the World, this son appeared in Bridgeport and claimed some settlement in case of the birth of a male heir, for which Barnum was anxious. The petitioner received $60,000 after he had signed a contract that he would never bother the heirs after Barnum’s death, according to the World.
The World also wrote that when one of Barnum’s daughters committed an offense against her husband for which Barnum reproved her, she snapped her fingers in his face, remarking: “How can I help it? I’m P. T. Barnum’s daughter.”
These stories in the World are worthy of mention because they have never been denied. The sources of information to their verification are closed completely by the comprehensible secrecy of family pride.
22 Barnum apparently thought it necessary to handle the publicity even for this complimentary dinner. He wrote the following letter to Gordon L. Ford, business manager of the New York Tribune:
“Waldemere, Bridgeport, Conn., June 18, 1874.
“My dear Mr. Ford:
“Will you please hand the enclosed slip to Mr. Reid [Whitelaw Reid] with my compliments. The Committee on dinner are to invite Mr. Reid. If I cannot have the honor of his company (which I hope I can) I hope he will kindly send a reporter and I shall be glad to pay his expenses. There will be 150 to the dinner including some distinguished guests.
“Yours,
“P. T. Barnum.
“Dinner at 7 P. M., all over before 10.”
Autograph Letter from the Gordon L. Ford Collection, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, New York Public Library.
23 Information to the author from Mr. A. H. Hummel, formerly attorney for Barnum & Bailey.
24 According to Major J. B. Pond, Barnum was inconsiderate of human and other animal life: “That afternoon one of the Amazons in the great Amazon march, which was a feature that year, was run over and killed by a chariot near the entrance of the ring. Mr. Barnum did not move, and I said:
“‘That is dreadful, isn’t it?’
“‘Oh,’ he replied, ‘there is another waiting for a place. It is rather a benefit than a loss.’
“I think I never knew a more heartless man or one who knew the value and possibilities of a dollar more than P. T. Barnum.” Eccentricities of Genius by Major J. B. Pond, pp. 353–354.
25 From illustrated Jumbo folder for children. In Harvard College Library Theater Collection.
26 This account of Jumbo’s departure is based on reports in the London Times for March 24, 25 and 27, 1882.
27 Autograph letter in the collection of Leonidas Westervelt.
28 The Barnum Budget, or Tent Topics, An Original Route Book of The Season of 1886, by Morris H. Warner, Press Agent. Authorized by P. T. Barnum, etc. In the Everett Wendell Collection, Harvard College Library.
29 James A. Bailey died in 1906 from erysipelas after an insect bit him while he was inspecting the circus menagerie. The Barnum & Bailey circus was sold to Ringling Brothers in 1907, and is now known as the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.