The Circus. 1870s-1950s - Hardcover

Jando, Dominique; Dahlinger, Fred; Granfield, Linda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3836520257 ISBN 13: 9783836520256

Publisher: Taschen GmbH, 2010

Synopsis

During its heyday, the American circus was the largest show-biz industry the world had ever seen. From the mid-1800s to mid-1900s, traveling American circuses performed for audiences of up to 14,000 per show and crisscrossed the country on 20,000 miles of railroad in one season alone. The spectacle of death-defying daredevils and strapping super-heroes gripped the American imagination, outshining theater, comedy, and minstrel shows of the day, and ultimately paving the way for film and television. The circus offered young Americans the dream of adventure and reinvention.This book brings to life the grit and glamour of the circus phenomenon. Images include photographic gems by early circus photographers Frederick Whitman Glasier and Edward Kelty, many of the earliest color photographs ever taken of the circus from the 1940s and 1950s, iconic circus photographs by Mathew Brady or Cornell Capa, and little-known circus images by Stanley Kubrick and Charles and Ray Eames. For the first...

About this title

Review:

"A gee-whiz spectacle of a book, a three-ring extravaganza as bright as a pinball machine."

"A striking visual record... it portrays energy, scale and drama."

About the Author:

Linda Granfield is a widely published author whose book Circus: An Album won six awards, including a place on the "Best of the Best" list by Chicago Public Library. Known for her clear and accessible writing, Granfield has penned many young adult publications as well as adult nonfiction books. She lives in Toronto, Canada. San Francisco-based circus historian Dominique Jando has written five books on the circus, was associate artistic director of New York's Big Apple Circus 1983-2002, and director of the San Francisco School of Circus Arts 2003-04. He is also cofounder of Paris's world-famous circus arts competition, the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain. Fred Dahlinger, Jr. from Baraboo, Wisconsin, is a circus historian and author of several books on the American circus. TASCHEN editor Noel Daniel graduated from Princeton University, and studied in Berlin on a Fulbright Scholarship. She received a master's in London and was the director of a photography art gallery before becoming a book editor. Her TASCHEN books include Magic 1400s-1950s (2009) and The Circus 1870-1950 (2008).

About this edition

• Publisher: Taschen GmbH
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 3836520257
• ISBN 13: 9783836520256
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 543
• Editor: Daniel Noel