title: The Life of P. T. Barnum, Written by Himself
author:  P T. Barnum 
description: For more than fifty years, Phineas T. Barnum embodied all that was grand and fraudulent in American mass culture. Over the course of a life that spanned the nineteenth century (1810-91), he inflicted himself upon a surprisingly willing public in a variety of guises, from newspaper editor (or libeler) to traveling showman (or charlatan) and distinguished public benefactor (or shameless hypocrite).
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  ![images](img/imgp_1.jpg)
  
  
  Barnum Musem
  
  
  
  
  
  # BARNUM’S OWN STORY
  
  
  _The Autobiography of_ P. T. BARNUM _Combined & condensed from the various
  editions published during his lifetime by_ Waldo R. Browne
  
  
  ##### DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
  
  
  ###### MINEOLA, NEW YORK
  
  
  _Bibliographical Note_
  
  
  This Dover edition, first published in 2017, is an unabridged and unaltered
  republication of the work originally published by The Viking Press, Inc., in
  1927. _Barnum’s Own Story_ represents an editing and condensation, in one
  volume, of the following two books by P. T. Barnum: _The Life of P.T. Barnum_
  , published by Redfield in 1855, and various editions of _Struggles and
  Triumphs; or, Forty Years’ Recollections of P. T Barnum_ that appeared from
  1869 to 1888.
  
  
  This Dover edition also includes forty-eight pages of illustrations not
  included in the 1927 edition. Grateful acknowledgment is made to Miss
  Elizabeth Sterling Seeley, Curator of the Barnum Museum, Bridgeport,
  Connecticut, and to the Mus