The Art of Money-Getting
by P.T. Barnum
The greatest showman of his age, P. T. Barnum was also the most gifted advocate for the Gospel of Success in nineteenth-century America. The Gospel, though rooted in Protestant traditions, by this time was leaving behind its religious texture and becoming secular. As a guide to success for energetic Americans, it was now expressed in rules, aphorisms, verses, lectures, and fables—such as the stories of Horatio Alger. Barnum’s autobiography, The Life of P. T. Barnum, Written by Himself, published in 1854, sold almost half a million copies. The “Rules of Success” that appeared in the book were also incorporated into Barnum’s lecture, “The Art of Money-Getting,” which he delivered more than a hundred times. Horace Greeley thought it “worth a hundred-dollar greenback to a beginner in life.” After Barnum’s death it was said that more newspaper space was devoted to his career than to that of any other American not a President of the United States.
The Art of Money-Getting details:
ISBN: 978-1-937853-37-2
Words: 13,882
Pages: 30
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