Changing into Tom Thumb: Charles Stratton, P. T. Barnum, and the Daybreak of American Movie star (The Driftless Connecticut Sequence & Garnet Books)

Winner of the Henry-Russell Hitchcock Award, Victorian Society of America (2014)

When P. T. Barnum met twenty-five-inch-tall Charles Stratton at a Bridgeport, Connecticut resort in 1843, probably the most necessary partnerships in leisure historical past was born. With Barnum’s promotional expertise and the miniature Stratton’s comedic abilities, they charmed a Who’s Who of the nineteenth century, from Queen Victoria to Charles Dickens to Abraham Lincoln. Adored worldwide as “Normal Tom Thumb,” Stratton performed to sold-out reveals for nearly forty years. From his days as a precocious baby star to his tragic early loss of life, Changing into Tom Thumb tells the total story of this iconic determine for the primary time. It particulars his triumphs on the New York stage, his epic celeb marriage ceremony, and his around-the-world tour, drawing on newly accessible major sources and interviews. From the mansions of Paris to the deserts of Australia, Stratton’s distinctive model of Yankee comedy not solely earned him the accolades of tens of millions of followers, it helped transfer little folks out of the aspect present and into the lime mild.