True History of the Elephant Man: The Definitive Account of the Tragic and Extraordinary Life of Joseph Carey Merrick

"A story to strike pity and terror into any heart."—Times [London] Literary Supplement

“Brilliantly researched.”—Sunday Telegraph

The subject of a Broadway hit, and a film, Joseph Merrick has become a part of popular mythology. Here, in this revised edition containing much fresh information, are the true and unromanticised facts of his life. An extraordinary and moving story, set amongst the brutal realities of the Victorian world, telling of a tragic individual and his survival against overwhelming odds.

Joseph Carey Merrick, born in Leicester on 5th August 1852, is better known as the Elephant Man.

Through horrible physical deformities which were almost impossible to describe, he spent much of his life exhibited as a fairground freak until even nineteenth-century sensibilities could take no more.

Hounded, persecuted and starving, he ended up one day at Liverpool Street Station where he was rescued, housed and fed by the distinguished surgeon Frederick Treves. To Treves' surprise, he discovered during the course of their friendship that lurking beneath the mass of Merrick's corrupting flesh lived a spirit that was as courageous as it had been tortured, and a nature as gentle and dignified as it had been deprived and tormented.

Peter Ford served as a national serviceman in the Royal Artillery in Malaya before working as an editor and writer. He lives in England.

Michael Howell was a distinguished doctor before his death in 1986.