House of Deception Library: Carnival & Sideshow Fiction
| Author | Title | Publication Year | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baker, Kevin | Dreamland | 1999 | HarperCollins, New York |
| Bass, Eduard | Umberto's Circus | 1951 | Farrar, Straus, & Young, New York |
| Bradley, Marion Zimmer | The Catch Trap | 1979 | Ballantine, New York |
| Brown, Carrie | The Hatbox Baby | 2002 | Berkley, New York |
| Carnahan, Matthew | Serpent Girl: A Novel | 2005 | Villard, New York |
| Chalfoun, Michelle | Roustabout | 1996 | HarperCollins, New York |
| Chalmers, Robert | Fortune's Bastard | 2004 | Grove/Atlantic, New York |
| Coldsmith, Don | The Long Journey Home | 2001 | Doherty, New York |
| Cook, Joel | With It--For It--and Up Against It | 2006 | Xulon Press, Longwood, FL |
| Croft, Barbara | Moon's Crossing | 2003 | Mariner, Boston |
| Croy, Homer | Coney Island | 1929 | Harper, New York |
| Day, Cathy | The Circus in Winter | 2005 | Harvest, Orlando |
| Ducovny, Amram | Coney | 2000 | Overlook Press, Woodstock, NY |
| Dunn, Katherine | Geek Love | 2002 | Vintage, New York |
| Glass, Bryan J. L. | Freaks of Nature #1 | 1992 | Comic Zone, Berlin, NJ |
| Gresham, William Lindsay | Nightmare Alley | ||
| Gruen, Sara | Water for Elephants: A Novel | 2006 | Algonquin, Chapel Hill, NC |
| Helfer, Ralph | Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant that Ever Lived | 1998 | Harper Perennial, New York |
| Helfer, Ralph | Mosey: The Remarkable Friendship of a Boy and His Elephant | 2002 | Orchard, New York |
| Hill, Charlie | First of May | 1978 | Carnival Publishers of Sarasota, FL |
| Hough, Robert | The Final Confession of Mabel Stark | 2003 | Atlantic Monthly, New York |
| Hyman, Timothy; Malbert, Roger | Carnivalesque (National Touring Exhibition) | 2000 | Hayward Gallery, London |
| Knaebel, Nathaniel (ed) | Step Right Up: Stories of Carnivals, Sideshows, and the Circus | 2004 | Carroll & Graf, New York |
| Mantel, Hilary | The Giant, O'Brien | 1998 | Henry Holt, New York |
| Maron, Margaret | Slow Dollar | 2002 | Mysterious Press, New York |
| Martin, A. E. | Common People: Murder in Sideshow Alley | 2005 | Wakefield Crime Classics, Kent Town, AU |
| Meah, Johnny | Polidore | 2003 | 1stBooks, Bloomington, IN |
| Millett, Larry | Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders | 1998 | Viking, New York |
| Paulsen, Gary | Tiltawhirl John | 1990 | Puffin, New York |
| Pomerance, Bernard | The Elephant Man | 1994 | Grove/Atlantic, New York |
| Reynolds Price | A Perfect Friend | 2002 | Scribner, New York |
| Schechter, Harold | The Hum Bug | 2001 | Pocket, New York |
| Schmitt, Richard | The Aerialist | 2002 | Harvest, San Diego |
| Siegel, Lee | Love and Other Games of Chance: A Novelty | 2003 | Viking, New York |
| Slouka, Mark | God's Fool | 2003 | Vintage, New York |
| Smith, Mary-Ann Tirone | Masters of Illusion | 1994 | Warner, New York |
| Strauss, Darin | Chang and Eng | 2000 | E P Dutton, New York |
| Toscana, David | Our Lady of the Circus | 2001 | St. Martin's, New York |
| Trevanian | "Snatch Off Your Cap. Kid!" in Hot Night in the City | 2000 | St. Martin's, New York |
| Twain, Mark | "Those Extraordinary Twins" in Puddnhead Wilson and Other Tales | 1998 | Oxford University Press |
| Welty, Eudora | "Petrified Man" in A Curtain Of Green and Other Stories | 1991 | Harcourt Brace, New York |
| Woodring, Jim; Lopez, F. Solano | Freaks: An Adaptation of the Tod Browning Film, Chapters 1-4 | 1992 | Monster Comics |
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This page is here to help you build a carnival and
sideshow history library of your own and to assist with
research.
Below is an extensive bibliography in book list format (also available in MLA and APA formats by request).
The titles, all from our library, range from Ph.D. dissertations to photo collections to elementary primers, with varying historical significance.
Click Books By Category to see the books relisted in eleven subtopics.
Click Book Covers to see the cover images.
See our Recommended Reading page for a more selective guide to the most essential works on the history of carnivals and sideshows.
Below is an extensive bibliography in book list format (also available in MLA and APA formats by request).
The titles, all from our library, range from Ph.D. dissertations to photo collections to elementary primers, with varying historical significance.
Click Books By Category to see the books relisted in eleven subtopics.
Click Book Covers to see the cover images.
See our Recommended Reading page for a more selective guide to the most essential works on the history of carnivals and sideshows.
Photo Galleries of the Carnival &
Sideshow Book Covers:
Click here to see the book covers, A-L
Click here to see the book covers, M-Z
Click here to see the book covers, A-L
Click here to see the book covers, M-Z
Please bookmark & link to HouseofDeception.com - New titles are added periodically.
Carnival & Sideshow History Books
Please bookmark & link to HouseofDeception.com - New titles are added periodically.
Photo Galleries of the Carnival &
Sideshow Book Covers
Click here to see the book covers, A-L
Click here to see the book covers, M-Z
Click here to see the book covers, A-L
Click here to see the book covers, M-Z
Carnival & Sideshow Books, Complete List
Carnival & Sideshow Books by Category
Carnival & Sideshow Book Covers, A-L
Carnival & Sideshow Book Covers, M-Z
Carnival & Sideshow Books by Category
Carnival & Sideshow Book Covers, A-L
Carnival & Sideshow Book Covers, M-Z
Carnival & Sideshow & Circus Fiction
All Rights Reserved
Duff Johnson 2004-2024
No text or image may be copied or
reproduced without written permission.
Duff Johnson 2004-2024
No text or image may be copied or
reproduced without written permission.
| Contact | Home | "Golden Age" Defined |
House of Deception Library: Carnival & Sideshow A-Z
| Author | Title | Publisher | Publication Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freaks of Nature | Red Lion, Canoga Park, CA | 1978 | |
| Adams, Bluford | E Pluribus Barnum: The Great Showman And The Making Of U.S. Popular Culture | Univ Of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis | 1997 |
| Adams, Judith A. | The American Amusement Park Industry: A History of Technology and Thrills | Twayne, Boston | 1991 |
| Adams, Rachel | Sideshow U.S.A: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination | University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL | 2001 |
| Adrian, Werner | Freaks: Cinema of the Bizarre | Warner, New York | 1976 |
| Alden, William Livingstone | Among the Freaks | Longmans Green, London | 1896 |
| Altick, Richard D. | The Shows of London: A Panoramic History of Exhibition, 1600-1862 | Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA | 1978 |
| American Heritage | "The Fat Man and His Friends" in American Heritage, June, 1966 | American Heritage, New York | 1966 |
| Andronik, Catherine M. | Prince of Humbugs: A Life of P. T. Barnum | Atheneum, New York | 1994 |
| Audibert, Chris | Biography of Frank William Gaskill [original manuscript] | [unpublished] Audibert Amusement. New York | 1989 |
| Baldwin, Samri S. | The Secrets of Mahatma Land Explained | author, New York | 1895 |
| Ballantine, Bill | Wild Tigers and Tame Fleas | Rinehart, New York | 1958 |
| Barnum Museum | Shocked and Amazed: The World of the Sideshow | Barnum Museum, Bridgeport, CT | 1999 |
| Barnum, P. T. | Life of P.T. Barnum | Redfield, New York | 1855 |
| Barnum, P. T. | The Life of P. T. Barnum: Written by Himself | University of Illinois Press, Champaign | 2000 |
| Barnum, P. T. | Humbugs of the World | Kessinger, Whitefish, MT | 2003 |
| Barnum, P. T.; Bode, Carl (ed.) | Struggles and Triumphs: Or, Forty Years' Recollections of P.T. Barnum | Penguin, New York | 1981 |
| Barnum, P.T. (edited/illustrated)) | P.T. Barnum's Big Picture Book Of The Humbugs Of The World, Vol 1 | Whiz Bang, Key West, FL | 2014 |
| Barth, Myles; Siegel, Alan | Step Right This Way: The Photographs of Edward J. Kelty | Barnes & Noble, New York | 2002 |
| Berman, John S. | Portraits of America: Coney Island | Barnes & Noble, New York | 2003 |
| Blaine, David | Mysterious Stranger | Villard, New York | 2002 |
| Boese, Alex | The Museum of Hoaxes: A Collection of Pranks, Stunts, Deceptions, and Other Wonderful Stories Contrived for the Public from the Middle Ages to the New Millennium | E P Dutton, New York | 2002 |
| Bogdan, Robert | Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit | University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL | 1990 |
| Boles, Don | The Midway Showman | Pinchpenny, Atlanta | 1967 |
| Boles, Don | The Compleat Pitchman | Pinchpenny, Atlanta | 1972 |
| Boles, Don | Midway Magic | Pinchpenny, Atlanta | 1963 |
| Bondeson, Jan | The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History | Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY | 1999 |
| Bondeson, Jan | The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels | Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY | 2000 |
| Bondeson, Jan | A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities | W.W. Norton, New York | 1999 |
| Bone, Howard | Side Show: My Life With Geeks, Freaks & Vagabonds in the Carny Trade | Sun Dog, Northville, MI | 2001 |
| Bone, Howard | Hurry, Hurry, Hurry | Dragon Fire and Magic | |
| Bonomo, Joe | The Strongman: The Daredevil Exploits of the Mightiest Man in the Movies | Bonomo Studios, New York | 1968 |
| Bradford, Verner Phillips; Blume, Harvey | Ota Benga: The Pygmy in the Zoo | St. Martin's, New York | 1992 |
| Braithwaite, David | Fairground Architecture: The World of Amusement Parks, Carnivals and Fairs | Praeger, New York | 1968 |
| Brill, Aaron K. | A. Brill's Bible of Building Plans and Collection of Much Information Useful to Showman, Carnie, Fairman, and Amusement Park Operator | A. B. Enterprises, Peoria, IL | 1976 |
| Broome, Richard; Jackomos, Alick | Sideshow Alley | Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, Australia | 1998 |
| Brouws, Jeff; Caron, Bruce | Inside the Live Reptile Tent: The Twilight World of the Carnival Midway | Chronicle, San Francisco | 2001 |
| Bryan, J. | The World's Greatest Showman: The Life of P.T. Barnum | Random House, New York | 1956 |
| Buckland, Frances T. | Curiosities of Natural History | Beekman, New York | 1975 |
| Buckland, Frances T. | Buckland's Curiosities of Natural History: A Selection | Patchworth, London | 1948 |
| Burns, Stanley | A Morning's Work: Medical Photographs from the Burns Archive & Collection, 1843-1939 | Twin Palms, Sante Fe NM | 1998 |
| Carlyon, David | Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard Of | PublicAffairs, New York | 2001 |
| Carmichael, Bill | Incredible Collectors, Weird Antiques and Odd Hobbies | Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey | 1971 |
| Carrington, Hereward | Sideshow Tricks Explained | Pinchpenny, Atlanta | 1973 |
| Carrington, Hereward | Side-Show and Animal Tricks | Sphinx, Kansas City | 1913 |
| Carrington, Hereward | Hindu Magic | Sphinx, Kansas City | 1913 |
| Carrington, Hereward | Side-Show Tricks Explained (Little Blue Book 1279) | Haldeman-Julius, Girard, KS | no date |
| Cavin, Lee | There Were Giants on the Earth! | Seville Chronicle, Seville, OH | 1970 |
| Chemung County Historical Society | The County Fair Carnival: Where the Midway Meets the Grange | Chemung County Historical Society, Elmira, NY | 1992 |
| Chubbuck, Ted | The Sound Of The Jenny | Vantage, New York | 1972 |
| Clair, Colin | Human Curiosities | Abelard-Schuman, London | 1968 |
| Cody, William Frederick | The Life of Buffalo Bill: Or, the Life and Adventures of William F. Cody, As Told by Himself | Narrative, Santa Barbara, CA | 2001 |
| Cody, William Frederick | The Life of Hon. William F. Cody Known as Buffalo Bill: An Autobiography | University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln | 1978 |
| Collings, Ellsworth | The 101 Ranch | University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK | 1986 |
| Connor, J. Hal | Stunts and Features for Carnivals | Eldridge, Franklin, OH | 1927 |
| Cook, James W. | The Arts of Deception: Playing With Fraud in the Age of Barnum | Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA | 2001 |
| Cook, James W. (ed.) | The Colossal P. T. Barnum Reader: Nothing Else Like It In The Universe | University of Illinois Press, Champaign | 2005 |
| Cox, Stephen | Munchkins of Oz | Cumberland House, Cumberland, TN | 2002 |
| Dadswell, Jack | Hey There Sucker! | Bruce Humphries, Boston | 1946 |
| Dahlinger, Fred | Circus World Museum Presents Show Trains of the 20th Century | Iconografix, Hudson, WI | 2000 |
| Dance, Peter S. | Animal Fakes & Frauds | Sampson Low, London | 1976 |
| Darrah, William C. | Cartes de Visite in Nineteenth Century Photography | W.C. Darrah, Gettysburg, PA | 1981 |
| Davis, Janet M. | The Circus Age: Culture and Society Under the American Big Top | University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC | 2002 |
| Dennett, Andrea Stulman | Weird & Wonderful: The Dime Museum in America | New York University Press | 1997 |
| Denson, Charles | Coney Island: Lost and Found | Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA | 2002 |
| Dreger, Alice Domurat | One of Us: Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal | Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA | 2004 |
| Dreger, Alice Domurat | Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex | Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA | 2000 |
| Drimmer, Frederick | Very Special People: The Struggles, Loves and Triumphs of Human Oddities | Amjon, New York | 1973 |
| Drimmer, Frederick | Born Different: Amazing Stories of Very Special People | Bantam Skylark, New York | 1991 |
| Dufour, Lou; Kirby, Irwin | Fabulous Years: A Showman's Tales of Carnivals, World's Fairs, and Broadway | Vantage, New York | 1977 |
| Charles River Editors | American Legends: The Life Of P.T. Barnum | 2014 | |
| Eichinger, Fr. Franz | "Are Nude Tibetan Lamas the Monstrous Abdominable Snowmen" in Fate, May 1959 | Clark, Evanston, IL | 1959 |
| Enss, Chris | Buffalo Gals: Women of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show | Falcon, San Ramon, CA | 2005 |
| Farnum, Allen L. | Pawnee Bill's Historic Wild West: A Photo Documentary of the 1900-1905 Show Tours | Schiffer, Atglen, PA | 1992 |
| Fellner, Chris | Freaks! No.1 | author | 1995 |
| Fenton, Peter | Eyeing the Flash | Simon & Schuster, New York | 2005 |
| Fiedler, Leslie A | Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self | Simon & Schuster, New York | 1979 |
| Fish, Charles | Blue Ribbons and Burlesque: A Book of Country Fairs | Countryman, Woodstock, VT | 1998 |
| Fitzsimons, Raymund | Barnum in London | Bles, London | 1969 |
| Fleming, Candace | The Great And Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life Of Showman P. T. Barnum | Schwartz & Wade, New York | 2009 |
| Fox, Charles Philip; Parkinson, Tom | The Circus in America | Hennessey & Ingalls, Santa Monica, CA | 2002 |
| Fox, Theron | How to Make Money With Carnival Games | Pinchpenny, Atlanta | 1980 |
| Fraley, Tobin | The Great American Carousel: A Century of Master Craftsmanship | Chronicle, San Francisco | 1994 |
| Fraley, Tobin; Sinick, Gary | The Carousel Animal | Chronicle, San Francisco | 1987 |
| Frega, Donnalee | Women of Illusion: A Circus Family's History | Palgrave/St. Martin's, New York | 2001 |
| Fried, Frederick; Fried, Mary | America's Forgotten Folk Arts | Pantheon, New York | 1978 |
| Friedman, David | A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King | Prometheus, Buffalo, NY | 1990 |
| Friedman, Drew | Drew Friedman's Sideshow Freaks | Blast Books, New York | 2011 |
| Friedman, John Block | The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought | Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY | 2000 |
| Frost, Linda | Conjoined Twins In Black And White: The Lives of Millie-Christine McKoy and Daisy and Violet Hilton | University of Wisconsin, Madison | 2009 |
| Gallop, Alan | Buffalo Bill's British Wild West | Sutton, Gloucestershire, UK | 2001 |
| Gangi, Tony | Carny Sideshows: Wierd Wonders of the Midway | Citadel, New York | 2010 |
| Gelernter, David | 1939: Lost World of the Fair | Avon, New York | 1996 |
| Geyer, Celesta; Roen, Samuel | Diet or Die: The Dolly Dimples Weight Reducing Plan | Frederick Fell, New York | 1968 |
| Gibson, Gregory | Hubert's Freaks: The Rare-Book Dealer, the Times Square Talker, and the Lost Photos Of Diane Arbus | Mariner, Boston | 2008 |
| Gibson, Walter B. | Carnival Gaffs | Gambler's Book Club, Las Vegas | 1976 |
| Gibson, Walter B. | The Bunco Book | Sidney Radner, Holyoke, MA | 1946 |
| Gilden, Bruce | Coney Island | Trebruk/Magnum Photos, New York | 2002 |
| Gonzalez-Crussi, Frank, M.D. | Notes of an Anatomist | Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego, CA | 1985 |
| Goodrich, Samuel G. | Curiosities of Human Nature: By the Author of Peter Parley's Tales | Bradbury and Soden, Boston | 1843 |
| Gorham, Maurice | Showmen and Suckers: An Excursion on the Crazy Fringe of the Entertainment World | Percival Marshall, London | 1951 |
| Gould, George M.; Pyle, Walter L. | Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine | Bell, New York | 1956 |
| Gowler, Danny | Carnival Games - How They Work and How to Win | author | 1997 |
| Graham, Peter W.; Oehlschlaeger, Fritz H. | Articulating the Elephant Man: Joseph Merrick and His Interpreters | Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD | 1992 |
| Grant, John | Monster Mysteries | Chartwell, Secaucus, NJ | 1993 |
| Greater Tampa Showmen's Association | Ladies' Auxiliary 1976 Directory | G.T.S.A., Tampa, FL | 1976 |
| Gregor, Jan T. | Circus of the Scars | Brennan Dalsgard, Seattle, WA | 1998 |
| Gresham, William Lindsay | Monster Midway: An Uninhibited Look at the Glittering World of the Carny | Rinehart, New York | 1953 |
| Groh, Lynn | P. T. Barnum | Dell, New York | 1980 |
| Gryczan, Matthew L. | Carnival Secrets | Zenith, Royal Oak MI | 1988 |
| Gurney, Gene | America in Wax | Crown, New York | 1977 |
| Gustafson, Donna | Images from the World Between: The Circus in Twentieth-Century American Art | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, Cambridge, MA | 2001 |
| Hahn, Emily | Eve & the Apes | Random House, New York | 1988 |
| Hall, Ward | My Very Unusual Friends | author, Gibsonton, FL | 1991 |
| Hall, Ward | Struggles and Triumphs of a Modern Day Showman | Carnival Publishers of Sarasota, FL | 1981 |
| Hammer, Carl; Bosker, Gideon | Freak Show: Sideshow Banner Art | Chronicle, San Francisco | 1996 |
| Harmetz, Aljean | The Making of the Wizard of Oz | Hyperion, New York | 1998 |
| Harris, Neil | Humbug: The Art of P. T. Barnum | University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL | 1981 |
| Harris, Neil | Humbug: The Art of P. T. Barnum. | Little Brown, Boston | 1973 |
| Hartzman, Marc | American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of History's Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers | Tarcher/Penguin, New York | 2005 |
| Havighurst, Walter | Buffalo Bill's Great Wild West Show | Random Library, New York | 2000 |
| Helfer, Ralph | Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant that Ever Lived | Harper Perennial, New York | 1998 |
| Hill, J. Dee; Hollenbeck, Phil | Freaks and Fire: The Underground Reinvention of Circus | Soft Skull, Brooklyn | 2004 |
| Hoh, LaVahn G.; Rough, William H. | Step Right Up! The Adventure of Circus in America | Betterway, Whitehall, VA | 1990 |
| Holland, Charlie | Strange Feats and Clever Turns | Holland & Palmer, London | 1998 |
| Holtman, Jerry; Harry Lewiston | Freak Show Man: The Autobiography of Harry Lewiston | Holloway House, Los Angeles, CA | 1968 |
| Hornberger, Francine | Carny Folk | Citadel, New York | 2005 |
| Horsman, Paul | The Fabulous World Of The Carnival | Midway, Nashua, NH | 2000 |
| Howard, Martin | Victorian Grotesque | Jupiter, London | 1977 |
| Howell, Michael; Ford, Peter | The True History of the Elephant Man | Allison & Busby, London | 2001 |
| Hoyt, Harlowe R. | Town Hall Tonight [Chapter 5, "Fifty Cents a Bottle--For Man or Beast"] | Bramhall House, New York | 1955 |
| Humphries, Barry | Bizarre | Bell, New York | 1965 |
| Hunter, Jack | Inside Teradome: An Illustrated History of Freak Film | Creation, London | 1998 |
| Hunter, Jack | Freak Babylon: An Illustrated History of Teratology & Freakshows | Glitterbooks, London | 2005 |
| Hunter, Kay | Duet For a Lifetime: The Story of the Original Siamese Twins | Coward-McCann, New York | 1964 |
| Hunter, Virginia Lee; Fenton, Peter | Carny: Americana on the Midway | Umbrage Editions, New York | 2007 |
| Hyman, Timothy; Malbert, Roger | Carnivalesque (National Touring Exhibition) | Hayward Gallery, London | 2000 |
| Immerso, Michael | Coney Island: The People's Playground | Rutgers University Press, Piscataway, NJ | 2002 |
| Impey, Oliver; MacGregor, Arthur | The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe | House of Stratus, N. Yorkshire, UK | 2001 |
| Jay, Ricky | Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women | Villard, New York | 1986 |
| Jay, Ricky | Jay's Journal of Anomalies | Quantuck Lane, New York | 2001 |
| Jay, Ricky | Extraordinary Exhibitions | Quantuck Lane, New York | 2005 |
| Jensen, Dean | The Biggest, The Smallest, The Longest, The Shortest: A Chonicle of the American Circus From Its Heartland | Wisconsin House, Madison, WI | 1975 |
| Jensen, Dean | The Lives And Loves Of Daisy And Violet Hilton: A True Story Of Conjoined Twins | Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA | 2006 |
| Johnson, Fred G. | Fred G. Johnson: Sideshow Banners | State of Illinois Art Gallery, Chicago | 1989 |
| Johnson, Karl | The Magician and the Cardsharp: The Search for America's Greatest Sleight-of-Hand Artist | Henry Holt, New York | 2005 |
| Johnson, Randy; Meah, Johnny; Secreto, Jim; Varndell, Teddy | Freaks, Geeks and Strange Girls: Sideshow Banners of the Great American Midway | Hardy Marks, Honolulu | 2000 |
| Kahn, Kenneth | The Carny Kid: Survival of a Young Thief | Pendant | 2005 |
| Kappler, Claude | Monstres, démons, et merveilles à la fin du Moyen Age | Payot | 1980 |
| Kasson, John F. | Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century | Hill and Wang, New York | 1978 |
| Kasson, Joy S. | Buffalo Bill's Wild West: Celebrity, Memory, and Popular History | Hill and Wang, New York | 2001 |
| Katz, Jimmy; Katz, Dena | World Of Wonders | powerHouse, Brooklyn, NY | 2009 |
| King, W. A. Jr. | Rattling Yours...Snake King | Springman-King, Brownsville, TX | 1964 |
| Knaebel, Nathaniel (ed) | Step Right Up: Stories of Carnivals, Sideshows, and the Circus | Carroll & Graf, New York | 2004 |
| Kobel, Bernard | Human Oddities of Circus Sideshows of Yesterday and Today: Complete List and Descriptive Text | author, Clearwater, FL | 1974 |
| Kohne, Eckart; Ewigleben, Cornelia (eds.) | Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome | University of California Press, Berkeley | 2000 |
| Kunhardt, Philip B. | P. T. Barnum: America's Greatest Showman | Knopf, New York | 1995 |
| Lambert, William (Will Delavoye) | Show Life in America | author, East Point, GA | 1925 |
| Larson, Erik | The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America | Crown, New York | 2003 |
| Laster, Lloyd B | Wagon Tracks & Peanut Sacks: An American Odyssey | Stewart, Big Sandy, TX | 1984 |
| Lee, Polly Jae | Giant: The Pictorial History of the Human Colossus | A. S. Barnes, South Brunswick | 1970 |
| Lehman, Eric D. | Becoming Tom Thumb: Charles Stratton, P. T. Barnum, and the Dawn of American Celebrity | Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT | 2013 |
| Leroi, Armand Marie | Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body | Viking, New York | 2003 |
| Levenson, Randal; Gray, Spalding | In Search of the Monkey Girl | Aperture, New York | 1982 |
| Lewis, Arthur H. | Carnival | Trident, New York | 1970 |
| Lifson, Robert; Mastro, William | Enter the Sideshow | authors | 1983 |
| Lutz, Stuart | [Barnum] "A Sucker for Autographs" in Autograph Collector Vol. 7 #9 | Odyssey, Corona, CA | 1998 |
| MacKay, Charles | Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds | L. C. Page, Boston | 1960 |
| Mangels, William F. | The Outdoog Amusement Industry: From Earliest Times to Present | Vantage, New York | 1952 |
| Mannix, Daniel P. | Step Right Up | Harper, New York | 1951 |
| Mannix, Daniel P. | Memoirs of a Sword Swallower | V/Search, San Francisco | 1996 |
| Mannix, Daniel P. | Freaks: We Who Are Not As Others | Re/Search, San Francisco, CA | 2000 |
| Mark, Mary Ellen | Indian Circus | Chronicle, San Francisco | 1993 |
| Martell, Joanne | Millie-Christine: Fearfully And Wonderfully Made | John F Blair, Winston-Salem, NC | 2000 |
| McCarry, John; Olson, Randy | County Fairs: Where America Meets [Chapter 5, "The Midway"] | National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. | 1997 |
| McCullough, Edo | Good Old Coney Island: A Sentimental Journey into the Past | Scribner, New York | 1957 |
| McCullough, Edo | World's Fair Midways: An Affectionate Account of American Amusement Areas from the Crystal Palace to the Crystal Ball | Exposition, New York | 1966 |
| McKennon, Joe | Circus Lingo | Carnival Publishers of Sarasota, FL | 1980 |
| McKennon, Joe | Logistics of the American Circus | Carnival Publishers of Sarasota, FL | 1977 |
| McKennon, Joe | Pictorial History of the American Carnival, Vol. III | Carnival Publishers of Sarasota, FL | 1981 |
| McKennon, Joe; McKennon | Pictorial History Of The American Carnival, Vol. I And Ii | Carnival Publishers of Sarasota, FL | 1977 |
| McMurtry, Larry | The Colonel and Little Missie: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the Beginnings of Superstardom in America | Simon & Schuster, New York | 2005 |
| McNamara, Brooks | Step Right Up: An Illustrated History of the Medicine Show | University Press of Mississippi, Jackson | 1995 |
| Meiselas, Susan | Carnival Strippers | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York | 2003 |
| Metcalfe, Francis | Side Show Studies | Outing, New York | 1906 |
| Miller, David Prince | Life of a Showman | Thomas Hailes Lacy, London | 1855 |
| Miller, Kenneth L. | Steele's Amusements: Carnival Life on the Midway | CreateSpace, Scott's Valley, CA | 2013 |
| Miller, Kenneth L. | The American Traveling Carnival | author, Valparaiso, IN | 2013 |
| Mitchell, Joseph | "Lady Olga" in Up in the Old Hotel | Vintage, New York | 1993 |
| Mitchell, Michael | Monsters: Human Freaks in America's Gilded Age: The Photographs of Chas Eisenmann | ECW, Toronto | 2002 |
| Monestier, Martin | Human Oddities: A Book of Nature's Anomalies | Citadel, New York | 1987 |
| Montagu, Ashley | The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity | Acadian, Lafayette, LA | 2001 |
| Morgan, Robert | The Showies: Revelations Of Australian Outdoor Side-Showmen | Brown Prior Anderson, Burwood, Victoria, Australia | 1995 |
| Moses, L. G. | Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883-1933 | University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM | 1999 |
| Napier, John Russell | Bigfoot | Berkley Medallion, New York | 1974 |
| Napier, John Russell | Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality | E P Dutton, New York | 1973 |
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