In her national bestseller Alice I Have Been Melanie Benjamin imagined the life of the woman who inspired Alice in Wonderland Now in this jubilant new novel Benjamin shines a dazzling spotlight on another fascinating female figure whose story has never fully been told a woman who became a nineteenth century icon and inspirationmdashand whose most daunting limitation became her greatest strengthldquoNever would I allow my size to define me Instead I would define itrdquoShe was only two-foot eight-inches tall but her legend reaches out to us more than a century later As a child Mercy Lavinia ldquoVinnierdquo Bump was encouraged to live a life hidden away from the public Instead she reached out to the immortal impresario P T Barnum married the tiny superstar General Tom Thumb in the wedding of the century and transformed into the worldrsquos most unexpected celebrityHere in Vinniersquos singular and spirited voice is her amazing adventuremdashfrom a showboat ldquofreakrdquo revue where she endured jeering mobs to her fateful meeting with the two men who would change her life P T Barnum and Charles Stratton AKA Tom Thumb Their wedding would captivate the nation preempt coverage of the Civil War and usher them into the White House and the company of presidents and queens But Vinniersquos fame would also endanger the person she prized most her similarly-sized sister Minnie a gentle soul unable to escape the glare of Vinniersquos spotlightA barnstorming novel of the Gilded Age and of a womanrsquos public triumphs and personal tragedies The Autobiography of Mrs Tom Thumb is the irresistible epic of a heroine who conquered the country with a heart as big as her dreamsmdashand whose story will surely win over yoursFrom the Hardcover edition.
