Struggles & Triumphs, or Forty Years' Recollections

Buffalo, NY: Warren, Johnson & Co. (Author's Edition, 1st thus, updated to February 1873 through Appendix II, "A Remarkable Campaign"). Hardcover with blind-stamped green cloth boards, gilt titles and decorated spine (still bright). No dust jacket, as issued. Frontispiece protected by heavily toned tissue guard. B&W engravings throughout. Spine extremities and edges are worn; boards are worn, with cardboard showing at corners; front hinge cracked; text block solidly sewn; spine square. Pages and endpapers are toned and foxed throughout; a few small open tears; damp stain at bottom corner pp. 681 and on. Previous owners' names written on FFEP and title page. Anomaly: bottom of pp. 780 is "(844th page, including engravings.)" followed by page 845.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman and politician remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus with James Anthony Bailey. He was also an author, publisher and philanthropist, although he said of himself: "I am a showman by profession ... and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me." According to Barnum's critics, his personal aim was "to put money in his own coffers." The adage "there's a sucker born every minute" has frequently been attributed to him, although no evidence exists that he had indeed coined the phrase. Barnum became a small-business owner in his early twenties and founded a weekly newspaper before moving to New York City in 1834. He embarked on an entertainment career, first with a variety troupe called "Barnum's Grand Scientific and Musical Theater", and soon after by purchasing Scudder's American Museum, which he renamed after himself. He used the museum as a platform to promote hoaxes and human curiosities such as the Fiji mermaid and General Tom Thumb. In 1850, he promoted the American tour of Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, paying her an unprecedented $1,000 (equivalent to $35,176 today.