Paul Chambers

The extraordinary life story of the world's most famous elephant-from his capture in Africa to his untimely demise in Canada. Billed as "the largest elephant ever to have lived," Jumbo was an animal superstar from the Victorian era. His celebrity was such that we now use his name to describe any outsized object. But Jumbo's fortune was mixed. Born in the wilds of Sudan in 1861, Jumbo was captured at the age of one and sold first to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and later to the London Zoo. Neglected and in ill health, he was put under the care of junior zookeeper Matthew Scott, who nursed Jumbo back to health. It is through access to this keeper's journals that author Paul Chambers is able to recount in this book Jumbo's antics-he amused the crowds by stealing people's hats and conducting the zoo's brass band. These stunts made him famous, as did his height of 12 feet and weight of 6.5 tons. In 1882, Jumbo and Scott were acquired by the Barnum circus in the United States and became even more popular there than in the U.K. But tragedy struck in 1885 when Jumbo was hit and killed by a train after a performance in Ontario. Original and entertaining, Jumbo is both a fascinating story of an amazing elephant and a revealing look at the Victorian attitude toward animals and the origins of our own obsession with zoos and circuses.

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