The Greatest Circus Stories Ever Told (2005) is an anthology of 13 essays and book excerpts from sources first published between about 1900 and 1926 (two are from 1955 and 1972). The editor is Stephen Brennan, a former circus clown, who provides an introduction to each piece with a little background about the author and facet of circus life. Since most of the pieces are old, they mostly discuss the circus silver age (golden age?) between about post-Civil War to WWI. However the age of the pieces should not discourage readership as the pieces are all well written, engrossing and capture a more romantic time in America.In addition I love anthologies like this because they reveal obscure but good authors and works I never would have heard of otherwise.

Of the 13 pieces I found 8 to be stand-outs. Two of these are excerpts from novels which I am now reading in full: James Otis' Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1881) and Edward Hoagland's Cat Man: A Novel (1955) and for that reason alone, discovering these novels, the anthology has been well worth it. The other six favorites include an essay by Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard Of; two essays by Courtney Ryley Cooper who is new to me but endlessly entertaining and sadly obscure today (see his Wikipedia profile); an essay by another obscure ex-clown with a talent for writing Robert Edmund Sherwood.

Water for Elephants, a modern novel about old circuses, has been in in the best seller list for years now. In comparison, reading about real life experiences from people who actually lived it, in short approachable extracts, vetted by an old hand, is an authentic and rewarding experience. While the crowds ohh and ahh their attention on the center best-seller ring, reading this book is like being out back of the tent, hanging with the circus people as they tell stories around a campfire: old retired clowns, the skeleton man and his wife the Fat lady, the romantic tight-rope walker, canvas men on the run, rummies - memorable stuff.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )