Jumbo: This Being the True Story of the Greatest Elephant in the World - Hardcover

Chambers, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1586421417 ISBN 13: 9781586421410

Publisher: Steerforth, 2008

Synopsis

Jumbo was a superstar of the Victorian era. Every day tens of thousands of people would visit this adored animal known as “the Children’s Pet” or, more simply, “the Giant Elephant,” at the London Zoo. When P.T. Barnum purchased him for his Greatest Show on Earth, Jumbo’s transport to the U.S. made headlines for weeks, and he was an instant sensation in America. His name entered our lexicon as an adjective for oversized things, and half a century after his death his still-famous and unrivalled popularity was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Dumbo. But fame comes at a price and, like so many modern celebrities, Jumbo led a troubled private life that was far from idyllic. His best friend – a zookeeper named Matthew Scott, who remained by Jumbo’s side in Britain and the United States for twenty years – was moody and manipulative, and Jumbo himself attracted rumors of violent tantrums, a fondness for drink, and of a “wife” he left behind in order to make it big in America.
From an eyewitness account of Jumbo’s capture in Africa after ivory hunters had killed his parents, to his early years at the Paris zoo where he was mistreated and regarded as a disappointing runt, to his stunning growth spurt in London where he became the largest elephant in captivity, to the “Jumbo craze” that swept across Britain and the United States, Paul Chambers utilizes new archival material in fully telling Jumbo’s story for the first time.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Chambers is the author of eleven books on subjects as diverse as dinosaurs, the giant tortoise, and London’s Bedlam Hospital. He holds degrees in geology and paleontology, is a former television producer, and lives in Hertfordshire, southern England.

Reviews

Adult/High School—Jumbo, an African elephant captured in 1862, endured a grueling journey to Europe, where he was housed in zoos in Paris and London. He was finally shipped to America to become part of Barnum & Bailey's "Greatest Show on Earth." Chambers has meticulously researched elephants in captivity during the Victorian era to tell the fascinating story of Jumbo's life and the eccentric humans who were part of it. Two such individuals were Matthew Scott, the keeper who spent 20 years by the animal's side, and the famously flamboyant Phineas Taylor Barnum. The showman purchased Jumbo from the London Zoo in 1882, during the height of the "Jumbo craze," and through his own deceptively clever marketing created a similar craze in America. Jumbo became victim to the Barnum & Bailey curse in 1885: one night while traveling on supposedly unoccupied railroad tracks, a locomotive struck him and the other elephants, and he died at the scene. Chambers asks readers to consider ethics and cruelty to animals in captivity; while activist groups existed in the late 1800s, zoological societies did not necessarily attend to their concerns. Jumbo was not only the inspiration for Helen Aberson's 1939 children's story Dumbo, but his name was also the first known use of the word "jumbo." While this title may not initially appeal to teens, booktalking and handselling it will prove rewarding to even the most reluctant readers.—Jennifer Waters, Red Deer Public Library, Alberta, Canada
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

British author Chambers (A Sheltered Life: The Unexpected History of the Tortoise) tells the colorful story of a magnificent animal. Captured in Africa in 1862, the young elephant, later called Jumbo, languished in Paris's Jardin des Plantes until 1865, when he was bought by the London Zoo. Under the care of a devoted keeper, Matthew Scott, the ailing elephant became the world's largest and the zoo's greatest attraction. In 1882, American circus magnate Phineas T. Barnum bought Jumbo, who became the star of the Greatest Show on Earth but died tragically in 1885, when he was hit by a freight train while on tour with the circus in Canada. Chambers highlights the personalities of the major players in the tale: Scott, a reclusive, irascible man at ease with animals but not with people; Abraham Bartlett, the superintendent of the London Zoo, who longed to be rid of the irksome keeper and his often troublesome elephant; Barnum, the flamboyant showman; and Jumbo himself, moody and subject to displays of temper, but gentle with thousands of children who rode on his back. Chambers's account of the legendary elephant—whose name has become synonymous with large objects—is touching and entertaining. Illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Steerforth
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1586421417
• ISBN 13: 9781586421410
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224