The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb

March 21, 2011
Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump, the diminutive wife of Gen. Tom Thumb, narrates her life story in this vivacious fictionalized autobiography that takes her from a small New England town to a seedy Mississippi showboat and eventually into the entourage of the impresario P.T. Barnum. Born with proportionate dwarfism, Vinnie, a "perfect woman in miniature," rejects a career as a schoolteacher in favor of show business, eventually finding an intellectual soul mate in Barnum and international fame that leads her into the opulence of New York society and meetings with heads of state from the White House to Europe and India. Benjamin (Alice I Have Been) centers the latter half of her tale around Vinnie and Barnum's odd-couple friendship and touchy business relationship, sometimes glossing frustratingly over Vinnie's own adventuresâa three-year tour of Australia and Asia is given only a few pagesâand leaving the last 40 years of her life untold. But the smart and unyieldingly ladylike Vinnie emerges as an effervescent narrator with a love of life and a grand story worth the price of admission.

March 1, 2011

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. [See Prepub Alert, 1/31/11.]--Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2011
Benjamin, author of the best-selling Alice I Have Been (2010), conjures up another enchanting novel based on a marginalized historical figure. Though in her heyday the diminutive Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump, aka Mrs. Tom Thumb, was internationally renowned and celebrated, today she is primarily remembered as one of nineteenth-century showman P. T. Barnums human curiosities. Benjamin swiftly corrects this misassumption, allowing Vinnie to speak for herself under the guise of penning her autobiography. From the opening pages, when the 32-inch-tall Vinnie declares that her biggest obstacle in life was not her stature but rather her lamentable name, her determination, resolve, and self-confidence take center stage. Her refusal to let her size define her becomes the catalyst for an extraordinary life filled with remarkable colleagues and adventures. Beginning on a seedy riverboat and culminating in royal and presidential invitations, Vinnies brilliant career as an entertainer is eclipsed only by her bittersweet personal story, as her fame exacts a tragic toll on her beloved youngerand even smallersister, Minnie. Expect readers everywhere to give a great big hand to the little lady.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)