The Colossal P.T. Barnum Reader: Nothing Else Like It in the Universe by Phineas T. Barnum

For the past seven years, James T. Cook has visited libraries and rare book collections to search through the literary remains of P.T. Barnum’s life and work. In Cook’s The Colossal P.T. Barnum Reader, we are treated to a unique compendium that combines carefully chosen selections from Barnum’s extensive oeuvre with insightful editorial text, exploring his career beyond existing autobiographies.

In the book, Cook reveals the many dimensions of Barnum’s creative genius. Businessman, huckster, and practical joker extraordinaire, P.T. Barnum’s ideal prank was played on the entire public audience of entertainment seekers. Widely considered a pioneer of the culture industry, not only was Barnum the conspirator of countless hoaxes, he was also the innovator of the kinds of showbiz promotions that, although they seem conventional today, were considered controversial in his time: reserved seats, matinee shows, and celebrity marketing campaigns. Indeed, Barnum is credited with having created the conditions that would foster the coming Hollywood blockbuster mentality.

On the surface, Barnum appears a harmless trickster and a light-hearted prankster. However, what is most striking about Cook’s collection is its editorial commentary, which delves more deeply into the person of P.T. Barnum, revealing some of the lesser-known, less savory sides of the showman. His exploitation of minorities was clearly supported by his political beliefs as a critic of abolitionism. Cook writes that “even at the height of radical Reconstruction, he continued to promote brutally dehumanizing images of people of color on stage.” This tendency toward racism is further depicted in the book’s 20-some reproductions of Barnum’s lithographic collaborations with printers Currier and Ives, one of which includes promotional commentary referring to a man of African heritage as an “it,” and asking whether this “it” belongs to a lower order of man, or a higher order of monkey.

Despite his questionable ethics both morally and politically, it is unquestionable that Barnum made an indelible mark on American culture not only through his innovative entertainment but also in his wealth of written work. Cook has included in the book selections that are insightful and profound. He frames each with appropriate historical and contextual reportage. The first “gallery” treats serialized writings such as Barnum’s travel chronicle, “European Correspondence”, and essays from his “Ancient and Modern Humbugs of the World”, both of which appeared in New York’s weeklies Atlas and Mercury. Also included here are selections from his semi-autobiographical novella, The Adventures of an Adventurer.

Gallery 2, “Promotions,” is especially illuminating and fully displays Barnum’s expertise in entertainment puffery. Herein, Barnum writes of his attractions including Joice Heth, nurse to George Washington and weighing 46 pounds at the age of 161; The “Feejee Mermaid,” Barnum’s oceanic find, the authenticity of which is confirmed by a letter from “an eminent Professor of Natural History”; and General Tom Thumb, Barnum’s “man in miniature” and the first international celebrity of the 19th century.

In the third gallery, Cook introduces the book’s collection of Currier and Ives-produced promotional prints with a short essay. Albinos, giants, and bearded ladies abound, and notorious Siamese twins Chang and Eng also make an appearance. These prints serve as ample proof of Barnum’s fascination with race, as seen in “William Tillman, the Colored Steward”, as well as “Albino Children with their Black mother and Black sister” and others.

Barnum’s public reception is the subject for the fourth gallery, and is an especially entertaining section of Cook’s treatise. Until this point in the book, we’ve mostly observed Barnum from his and other entertainer’s viewpoints, but this section provides direct evidence of the public’s reaction to Barnum’s attractions and methods. One letter, published in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1842, writes in response to the Feejee Mermaid, complaining that the exhibit was too shabby and involved “the head of a monkey fastened to the tail of a fish!!” On the exhibit called, “What is it?” a newspaper publishes the observation that “some people think it has too much intelligence for a nigger, and not enough for a monkey.”

Finally, the fifth gallery displays an assortment of obituaries published in the wake of Barnum’s passing as testimony to his legacy. All reference Barnum as a man of greatness and speak of him as a triumphant showman of notorious stature, and one who won’t easily be forgotten.

Reading James W. Cook’s work, one is captivated by the breadth of this entertainer’s life, surprised at some of the personal details of his ethics, and appreciative of its editor’s inclusion of only those excerpts most valuable to the collection. P.T. Barnum left a distinct impression on the American landscape and is responsible for crafting an industrial empire out of culture. Appealing to a wide variety of readers, curiosity seems unavoidable when encountering the man who said, “If your product lacks a buzz, make one up. Invent expert testimonials. Pretend previous triumphs.” The fact that Barnum included human beings in his conception of products is by turns disturbing and remarkable, and makes for a dynamic commentary on contemporary society’s buying and selling of celebrities.