The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb (54 page)

I am indebted, as always, to Laura Langlie for her insight, support, and savvy. Thanks, of course, to everyone at Random House: Kate Miciak, my wonderful editor; Gina Centrello, Libby McGuire, Jane von Mehren; Susan Corcoran and the tireless publicity team; Sanyu Dillon and the amazing marketing team; Robbin Schiff for her brilliant cover art; and Denise Cronin, Rachel Kind, and Donna Duverglas. Much gratitude to Randall Klein for answering my endless questions, and Loyale Coles.

And as always, I could not have done this without the support of my family, especially Dennis, Alec, and Ben Hauser.

Q: Tell us about how you first discovered Vinnie
.

I first heard about her—or, rather, read about her—in the pages of E. L. Doctorow’s
Ragtime
. She had a brief scene with Harry Houdini, a major character in the book. She was feisty, even in that!

Fast forward and I’m halfway through my next book for Random House when I realize that I can’t finish it. It just wasn’t interesting to me, and, of course, how can an author then expect the reader to be interested? But I knew that before I told my wonderful editor I couldn’t finish, I needed to have a couple of preliminary chapters of something else. So I did what I always do—I spent long hours reading histories and timelines, Googling, anything that might spur my interest. This involves looking through a lot of lists, too. I knew the era about which I wanted to write, and I also knew that this time I wanted to write an American story (since
Alice I Have Been
was set in England). On one of these lists, the name “Lavinia Warren Stratton—AKA Mrs. Tom Thumb” came up, and I remembered that scene in
Ragtime
. So I did a quick Google search on her name, and was immediately entranced by her story.

Q: Were you a fan of the circus as a child, or are you now?

Not really as a child, but, yes, now I enjoy the pageantry. I am really interested in the performers, though—I always find myself wondering how they chose this life and why, and what it’s really like.

Q: Tell us a little about the research you did on Vinnie: Where and what were your primary sources? What did you find most provocative about Vinnie’s life as you researched the novel? What surprised you the most? What still resonates with you?

The primary source was her unedited, loosely written autobiographical notes, which were compiled and published in 1979 by a man named A. H. Saxon. Also a book called
General Tom Thumb and His Lady
, which is based mainly on their lives as advertised by P. T. Barnum—in other words, it’s inaccurate, but important in understanding the myth of their public lives. Also
Barnum Presents: General Tom Thumb
by Alice Curtis Desmond—again, largely a retelling of Barnum’s version of their lives. And I read several biographies of Barnum himself, as well as Robert Bogdan’s
Freak Show
.

But the most important research was Vinnie’s own writings, in her autobiographical sketches. And the most provocative thing, to me, was what she left unsaid. Her voice is so relentlessly cheerful and optimistic—and fiercely ladylike—but she never discusses the heartbreak, the disappointment, the frustration she must have felt so often in her life. She lived in a time when one popular theory equated a person’s intelligence to the size of his head. So she had to have encountered those who thought she was stupid or slow. Plus she faced daunting physical limitations in an era of crude train travel, no elevators, etc. Her personal heartbreaks—and she had them—also were so determinedly glossed over.

Trying to read between the lines, then, of her well-documented public life—exploring the woman behind the curtain, so to speak: That was my reason for writing the book.

Q: Can you explain why you decided to end the novel where you did—almost forty years before Vinnie dies?

Because I started to fear this would be a five-hundred-thousand-word book if I went all the way to the end! She accomplished so very much in her lifetime—met every person of importance, went everywhere. The canvas of her life was simply vast. But in every life, there are a thousand little stories, and it’s up to the historical novelist to decide which scant handful of stories to tell—which ones can be woven together into a compelling book. And the story that emerged, for me, was the story of her relationship with P. T. Barnum. It seemed to me that he was the only person in Vinnie’s life with a personality as big as her own. So once that became clear, the rest of the novel took shape around this, and it made sense to end the book with their reconciliation; that was the story I wanted to tell.

But there is quite a lot of story left; I may have to revisit Vinnie someday.

Q: As public a figure as Vinnie was, she was very private about her emotions and people close to her. Do you think she’d be pleased to see her name back in the headlines with your novel?

While I’m not sure she’d like me pulling the curtain back on her private heartbreaks and frustrations, I’m quite certain she’d be thrilled to see her name on the cover of a book again!

Q: As a historical novelist, are you more concerned with sticking to the absolute historical truth, or telling a good story? How did you balance fact versus fiction in this novel, and in
Alice I Have Been
?

I like to say that I never let the truth get in the way of a good story! There’s a reason why “A Novel” is on the front of the book. It’s fiction, and I trust the readers to know that. Always, my hope is that after reading one of my books, a reader is inspired to learn more about these remarkable people. Of course, I do use the known facts as a template; they’re the “bones” upon which I hang the “skin”—the story, the fiction. But sometimes you do have to take liberties—although I always try to take them with people whose motivations are truly unclear in the historical record, or with events whose details remain unknown to us. I did the same with
Alice I Have Been
.

Q: Book clubs have really embraced
Alice I Have Been
.
Do you think they will feel the same about this novel? What themes will book clubs respond to in
The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb
?

I’ve been so fortunate with
Alice I Have Been
! I’ve met so many wonderful readers, and believe that talking with them has made me a better writer. I really do think book clubs will embrace
The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb
. For one thing, Vinnie’s story is played out against such a rich panoply of American history. There’s so much to discuss and explore—the advent of the railroad, the Civil War, the Gilded Age. Then, too, there’s a lot to discuss about a woman who so fiercely sought more than she ever should have expected, given her status as a single woman—not to mention a very small single woman—in a time when a woman had no real choices in her life beyond marriage. Her size was her passport into a world she never would have seen otherwise—but it also prevented her from living a traditional woman’s life. And I sense she mourned that.

Q: You’ve talked about how there are many parallels between Vinnie’s time and now: We may not have “curiosities” and “freak shows,” but we live in a voyeuristic world and through technology (Twitter) and entertainment (reality television) have views into people’s lives that are so very different than ours. Can you discuss this a little more here?

Well, I’m quite certain that Vinnie would have her own reality show, were she alive today! She sought the spotlight—so, in a way, she began to blur the line between real life and the life people thought she was living, as depicted on stage and in Barnum’s advertising. And I see that happening today—people who are famous simply for being famous, who then believe that they’re talented, worthy of our attention for other reasons as well. I think Vinnie probably fell into the same trap.

And while we may decry a past in which people eagerly paid money to see curiosities, or freak shows, as they were eventually called, how are we any different today? We follow strangers on Twitter, we set our DVRs to record our favorite reality shows—some of which, to be truthful, are really no more than glorified versions of the freak shows of a different time.

So nothing has really changed, has it?

Q: What’s next for you?

Well, as I’m certain my editor would not like me to spill the beans yet, all I can say is I’m working on another historical novel, this one set in the early part of the twentieth century. And I’m trying to part the curtain on another famous person’s fiercely private life.

Q: What do you read in your spare time, or when you’re not writing?

Everything! I love nonfiction—history, obviously! And literary and commercial fiction. Any good story, well told. I pretty much devote my weekends to reading, two or three books, if I’m lucky. I honestly believe that part of a writer’s job is to read; it’s how we learn, it’s how we grow.

After all, I never would have heard of Lavinia Warren Stratton had I not read E. L. Doctorow’s
Ragtime
!

1841

Vinnie is born; the first wagon train arrives in California.

1847

Mormons arrive in Utah.

The issue of polygamy, specifically as outlined by the Mormon faith, was nearly as big an issue as slavery in antebellum America. The Mormon leader Brigham Young was a figure of much interest as well as controversy; Vinnie met him on her Western tour, and made no attempt to hide her disgust at the practice of polygamy and the paternalistic society of the Mormons in Utah.

1858

Vinnie begins her career on the Mississippi; the first transatlantic telegraph is received in New York City.

1859

Charles Darwin publishes
On the Origin of Species
.

1861

The Civil War begins.

2011 marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, a defining moment that shaped the identity of America forever. Vinnie’s public life was played out against this epic backdrop; she was in Mississippi on the very eve of secession, saw at least two brothers go off to war, visited the troops outside of Washington when she and Charles were on their honeymoon tour. Soon after the war was over, she was in the battle-scarred South, seeing firsthand the ravages of war and even glimpsing the Ku Klux Klan in its infancy.

1863

Vinnie and Charles Stratton marry in the most celebrated wedding ceremony of the age; Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation; the General Tom Thumb Company, on its way to perform in Canada, is on one of the last trains to leave New York before the Draft Riots destroy the train tracks into the city.

1865

The Civil War ends.

1869

Vinnie and the General Tom Thumb Company travel the new Transcontinental Railroad months after the Golden Spike, signaling its completion, is driven; General Philip Sheridan reportedly says, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”

Perhaps no single event was more responsible for both settling and destroying the West than the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Point, Utah, on May 10, 1869. Suddenly you could cross the entire continent by railroad. The route from Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California, only took four days, four hours, and forty minutes for a journey that had taken wagon trains months to travel. New towns sprang up along the route; lawlessness moved west with the population; and the Indian Wars truly began. Vinnie and the General Tom Thumb Company were among the first passengers, commencing their world tour in July 1869 by traveling west on the new railroad.

1871

Lewis Carroll publishes
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There
.

1872

Vinnie and company return home from their world tour.

1876

Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone; National League baseball is founded; the Battle of the Little Big Horn is fought.

Everyone knows of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, one of the great disasters in United States army history, precipitated by General George Armstrong Custer—who first came to prominence during the Civil War. The Indian Wars were a tragic part of our country’s history, beginning in the early 1600s with the Anglo-Powhatan Wars, a twelve-year conflict in Virginia that left many colonists and Indians dead, and ending in 1890 with the Massacre at Wounded Knee, when the last fighting band of the Lakota was destroyed by the U.S. Army. In Vinnie’s time, the saying “the only good Indian is a dead Indian” was accepted as a matter of fact; she wrote about her few encounters with Native Americans, on her Western trip, with undisguised distaste. Unfortunately, the damaging stereotype of the brave U.S. settler/soldier and the evil, often drunk, Indian persisted well into the twentieth century, in movies and television. Now, however, we have a better understanding of our nation’s ugly treatment of the original inhabitants of North America.

1878

Vinnie’s sister Minnie dies; Edison patents the phonograph.

Thomas Alva Edison, born in 1847—a contemporary of Vinnie—was of course the greatest inventor of his time. From the phonograph to the light bulb, even to his ideas for a talking book—predating the audiobook by generations!—he single-handedly changed America during Vinnie’s lifetime.

1879

Edison invents the incandescent light bulb.

1881

Charles and Vinnie tour with Barnum’s Greatest Show on Earth; President Garfield is assassinated.

1883

Charles Stratton dies; the first telephone line connects New York City and Chicago.

1885

Vinnie remarries.

1894

The first motion picture is made in the United States (
Fred Ott’s Sneeze
).

1906

Vinnie publishes a few articles, intended to foreshadow her autobiography (which is never published in her lifetime), in the
New York Tribune;
the San Francisco earthquake occurs.