Born on July 5, 1810, Phineas Taylor Barnum gained his appreciation for the art of entertainment from his grandfather, a lover of practical jokes. Barnum writes in his memoirs, "My grandfather would go farther, wait longer, work harder, and contrive deeper, to carry out a practical joke, than for anything else under heaven. 1 Barnum likened himself to his grandfather's love of entertainment at the expense of others: "I am almost sorry to say that I am his counterpart; for although nothing that I can conceive of delights me so much as playing off one of those dangerous things, and although I have enjoyed more hearty laughs in the planning and executing them than from any one source in the world, have generally tried to avoid giving offence, yet I have many times done so." 2
His books include:
Link to the books here
The Art of Money Getting
or Golden Rules for Making Money
Biography courtesy of Robin Freed's UVa web
As a young boy, Barnum worked on his family's farm in Bethel, Connecticut. Farm work was not to his liking: "My aversion to hand-work, on the farm or otherwise, continued to be manifested in various ways, all of which was generally set down to the score of laziness. I believe, indeed, I had the reputation of being the laziest boy in town, probably because I was always busy at head-work to evade the sentence of gaining bread by the seat of the brow." 3 When Barnum's father died in 1825, the boy had the responsibility of taking care of his four brothers and sisters. To make ends meet Barnum took up lottery schemes where he awarded green bottles and tinware to the winners. Barnum's grandfather was pleased with his grandson's scheme, and he describes the old man's appreciation in his memoirs: "My grandfather enjoyed my lottery speculation very much, and seemed to agree with many others, who declared that I was indeed "a chip off the old block." 4 Ever ready to turn a profit, Barnum opened a fruit and candy store with the help of his grandfather three years later. |
