P.T. Barnum was born in Bethel, CT on July 5, 1810 where he founded a weekly newspaper before moving to New York City in 1834.
In New York, Barnum creating a curiosity museum and the circus that now is part of the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus. His career in entertainment included a variety troupe called "Barnum's Grand Scientific and Musical Theater" and purchasing Scudder's American Museum, which he renamed the Barnum American Museum. He became famous for using the museum to promote hoaxes and human curiosities such as the Feejee mermaid and General Tom Thumb. He also promoted the American tour of singer Jenny Lind, "The Swedish Nightingale". P.T. Barnum is closely associated with the aphorism "There's a sucker born every minute."
Barnum was also served in Connecticut House of Representatives from 1866–1869 and the mayor of Bridgeport, CT from 1875–1876. He died in Bridgeport on April 7, 1891 and is buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery.
Goodreads, web link, lists the following books authored by P.T. Barnum:
The Art of Money Getting: Golden Rules for Making Money
The Life of P. T. Barnum
Struggles and Triumphs: or, Forty Years' Recollections of P.T. Barnum
Humbugs of the World
The Colossal P. T. Barnum Reader: NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT IN THE UNIVERSE
Reader's Digest Great Biographies: Struggles And Triumphs Or The Life Of P T Barnum; The China I Knew; The Life And Death Of Adolf Hitler; An Exceptional Marriage, Louisa Catherine And John Quincy Adams
Animal Stories: An Account of the Author's Famous Expedition in Search of Wild Animals for the Circus
Selected Letters of P.T. Barnum
The Art of Money Getting and Letter to John Greenwood
The Wild Beasts, Birds and Reptiles of the World: The Story of Their Capture