Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb (Benjamin)

Book Reviews
Benjamin…knows how to combine research and readability. And she's given Vinnie such dignity and courage…that her heroine commands attention from the first page.
Washington Post


Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump, the diminutive wife of Gen. Tom Thumb, narrates her life story in this vivaciousfictionalized autobiography that takes her from a small New Englandtown to a seedy Mississippi showboat and eventuallyinto the entourage of the impresario P.T. Barnum. Born withproportionate dwarfism, Vinnie, a "perfect woman in miniature," rejects a career as a schoolteacher in favor of showbusiness, eventually finding an intellectual soul mate in Barnum andinternational fame that leads her into the opulence of New Yorksociety and meetings with heads of state from theWhite House to Europe and India. Benjamin (Alice I HaveBeen) centers the latter half of her tale around Vinnie and Barnum'sodd-couple friendship and touchy businessrelationship, sometimes glossing frustratingly over Vinnie'sown adventures—a three-year tour of Australia and Asia isgiven only a few pages—and leaving the last 40 yearsof her life untold. But the smart and unyieldingly ladylikeVinnie emerges as an effervescent narrator with a love of life and a grand story worth the price of admission.
Publishers Weekly


This follow-up to Benjamin's Alice I Have Been is loosely based on the life of Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump, who married world-famous "little person" Charles Stratton (aka Gen. Tom Thumb). Benjamin tells Vinnie's story from her upbringing in a modest but proud Massachusetts family to her early forays into show business on a seedy riverboat to her eventual fame and fortune as one of P.T. Barnum's popular attractions. In an essentially arranged marriage, she reserves her emotional intimacy for Barnum and her sister Minnie, with tragic results. Verdict: Vinnie's first-person narration grabs you from the opening pages, providing hints of the absorbing and entertaining story to come. The novel is also a delightful cavalcade of late 19th-century Americana, as you travel with Vinnie up and down the Mississippi, head westward via the expanding railroad, and hobnob with New York's rich and famous. Those interested in "behind the scenes" of show business will be equally entranced. —Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis
Library Journal