Struggles and Triumphs: Or, Forty Years' Recollections of P. T. Barnum

P.T. Barnum was the greatest showman who ever lived, and this memoir proves it. Written in 1871, when the man himself was at the height of his powers, "Struggles and Triumphs" is part confession, part advertisement, and part nuts-and-bolts guide to separating Americans from their money. Barnum tells his own story with the same verve he brought to his circus: he's charming, he's ridiculous, he's occasionally full of it, and you cannot look away. Born in rural Connecticut to a family that couldn't afford to keep him in shoes, he grew up to invent American entertainment as we know it. The book is packed with specific swindles, schemes, and spectacles, but it's also surprisingly honest about failure. Barnum went bankrupt three times before he built his empire. He tells you exactly how he got back up. This is the book that taught generations of entrepreneurs that all publicity is good publicity, that the customer is a fool, and that the only sin is being boring.