The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb - Melanie Benjamin [0]
historical events; to real people, living or dead; or to real locales are
intended only to give the fiction a setting in historical reality. Other names,
characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously, and their resemblance, if any, to real-life
counterparts is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2011 by Melanie Benjamin
“A Conversation with Melanie Benjamin” copyright © 2011
by Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of
The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.,
New York.
DELACORTE PRESS is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the
colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Benjamin, Melanie.
The autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb: a novel / Melanie Benjamin.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-345-52757-8
1. Magri, M. Lavinia (Mercy Lavinia), 1841–1919—Fiction.
2. Women circus performers—United States—Fiction.
3. Dwarfs—United States—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3608.A876A94 2011
813′.6—dc22 2010052863
www.bantamdell.com
Frontispiece photograph of Lavinia Warren by Mathew Brady
from the Library of Congress collection
Jacket design: Gabrielle Bordwin
Jacket photograph: © Cathy Stancil/Arcangel Images
v3.1
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
Prologue
Chapter One - My Childhood, or the Early Life of a Tiny
Chapter Two - Leaving Home, or an Interlude of Heart-Tugging Music and Recitation
Chapter Three - Life on the Mississippi, or My Education Truly Begins
Chapter Four - In Which Our Heroine Nearly Comes to Ruin
Chapter Five - Another Brief Interlude of Music and Tender Reunion
Chapter Six - At Last I Meet the Great Man Himself
Chapter Seven - I Prepare to Make My Grand Entrance
Chapter Eight - Or, A Star is Born
Chapter Nine - Or, Another Player Makes His Long-Anticipated Entrance
Chapter Ten - Two Rivals for One Hand
Chapter Eleven - In Which Our Heroine Finds True Love at Last
Chapter Twelve - And So She is Married
Chapter Thirteen - And Baby Makes Three
Chapter Fourteen - Thrills and Chills Guaranteed to Tingle the Spine! (or, Trains, Indians, Runaway Wagons, and Mormons)
Chapter Fifteen - A Sister Act Breaks Up
Chapter Sixteen - The Curtain Falls, Between Acts
Chapter Seventeen - Ladies and Gentlemen, in the Center Ring …
Chapter Eighteen - A Terrible Conflagration
Chapter Nineteen - Finale, or—the Curtain Comes Down
Chapter Twenty - One Last Encore
Author’s Note
Dedication
Acknowledgments
A Conversation with Melanie Benjamin
Timeline: The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb
Other Books by This Author
About the Author
From Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, July 2, 1850
AMERICAN VANITY
We are not at all surprised at what in this country is most foolishly called the conceit and vanity of the Americans. What people in the world have so fine, so magnificent a country? … If ever these magnificent dreams of the American people are realized—and all that is wanted for their realization is that things should only go on as they have been going on for the last two centuries—there will be seated upon that vast continent a population greater than that of all Europe, all speaking the same language, all active-minded, intelligent, and well off.
I SUPPOSE IT WOULD BE FASHIONABLE TO ADMIT TO SOME RESERVATIONS as I undertake to write the History of My Life. Popular memoirs of our time suggest a certain reticence is expected, particularly when the author is a female. We women are timid creatures, after all; we must retire behind a veil of secrecy and allow others to tell our stories.
To that, I can only reply, “Rubbish!” I have let others—one other, in particular—tell my story for far too long. Now is the time to set the record straight, to sort out the humbug from the truth, and vice versa.
Has any other female of our time been written about as much as I have? It was not so very long ago when