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The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy | 
 enlarge | Author: Stewart O'nan
Publisher: Anchor
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $2.88
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Avg. Customer Rating:  68 reviews
Sales Rank: 191569
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0385496850
Dewey Decimal Number: 974.63
EAN: 9780385496858
ASIN: 0385496850
Publication Date: June 12, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Very nice copy, trade paperback, no crease in spine, mild shelfwear with a little edge/corner wear, clean pages, tight binding, unmarked text.
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Amazon.com Review
As some 9,000 people watched the Wallendas begin their high-wire act on July 6, 1944, a fire started on the sidewall of the big top at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of 6,000 gallons of white gasoline and 18,000 pounds of paraffin; common practice for circuses at the time. In minutes, the entire tent was engulfed in flames. In the rush for the exits, people were trampled and burned--some beyond recognition. In the end, 167 were dead and 487 injured, of whom 140 required hospitalization. The city of Hartford, Connecticut, would never be the same. Stewart O'Nan brings his storytelling ability to the tragedy of The Circus Fire. Several survivors said the one thing they will never forget about the circus fire as long as they live is the sound of the animals as they burned alive. But there were no animals. O'Nan interviewed dozens of witnesses and examined police reports, newspaper accounts, and court documents while researching the fire. The result is an engrossing--though agonizingly painful--account of the great fire and its aftermath. He probes the tragedy's enduring mysteries--How did the fire start? Who are the unidentified victims? Who is Little Miss 1565?--and offers up conclusions of his own. He also provides remarkable vignettes of panic, heroism, and grief: Merle Evans and the band playing "The Stars and Stripes Forever," the circus disaster march, over and over; Bill Curlee, standing atop the wild animal chute throwing trapped children to safety; the Cote sisters, who made it home safely then broke down when asked why they were back so early. O'Nan tells their stories with compassion--albeit with a slight tendency toward the macabre. Moving, saddening, gruesome--yet car-crash compelling--The Circus Fire is a gripping read. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney
Product Description
The acclaimed author of A Prayer for the Dying brings all his narrative gifts to bear on this gripping account of tragedy and heroism-the great Hartford circus fire of 1944.
Halfway through a midsummer afternoon performance, Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus's big top caught fire. The tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of paraffin and gasoline; in seconds it was burning out of control, and more than 8,000 people were trapped inside. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of survivors, O'Nan skillfully re-creates the horrific events and illuminates the psychological oddities of human behavior under stress: the mad scramble for the exits; the hero who tossed dozens of children to safety before being trampled to death.
Brilliantly constructed and exceptionally moving, The Circus Fire is history at its most compelling.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 63 more reviews...
 EVERYTHING INCLUDED! March 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Good books on historical events usually tell of events before, during and after the occurence. Some much more so than others. What is striking here is how O'nan manages to refer to everything related to Hartford's fire over a fifty year period! Everything is included. We are told of circus fires and accidents back in to the 19th century, circus mishaps in the years after the fire, other disasters of interest, and of the personal lives and fates of those involved. I have extensive knowledge of historic catastrophes, and can attest that nothing of any interest was left out. The author has said the book was a lot of work to write, and this is clear given its detail. There is no other book quite like it.
But the book's strength is also its weakness. So much is included that the writing suffers some. We are constantly introduced to new characters and sub-stories, interrupting the flow, and creating a kind of 'literary turbulence' that is disturbing at times. But don't let this stop you from buying, and reading, this tale of a circus tragedy.
 A little choppy February 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
My family is from Sarasota, FL, where the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus had their winter quarters for many years. My great-grandmother on my mother's side used to watch some of the circus kids while their parents trained, and my mom had heard stories about this fire, and then when I was younger, I had heard the same stories. We had known Merle Evans, and he told us about that day.
I had not known about this book until reading about it in a thread on LT, so I thought I would give it a try and learn a little bit more about that awful day. O'Nan presents what is clearly a well-researched, if not always well-written, history about that day, and the events that (may or may not have) led up to it, and the circumstances that followed. After O'Nan introduces each person, he continues to write about these people as if the reader is as familiar them as he is due to his researching them. If you can let go of trying to keep track of who is who (there is a huge number of people involved) and simply read the book and accept the facts as they are presented, you will have a better chance of getting something out of this book. I kept trying to keep straight in my head who was who, but after awhile I simply gave up on this and just read.
Due to the nature of the tragedy, I don't know that it's possible for O'Nan to write this without some sense of sensationalizing the facts, but everything that he writes clearly gets across the horror of the day. The accompanying photographs help you visualize exactly what happened during the fire. The book itself suffers from some writing errors throughout, and these probably could have been fixed with a stronger editing, but they are not overly distracting.
O'Nan clearly researched his facts, and while he tries to present some possible explanations to the cause of the fire and circumstances surrounding it, he doesn't try to present these as fact. He relies on the established facts that have been proven, and draws on these to present the story as best he can. This book won't be for everyone. It was a horrible day, and O'Nan doesn't try to sugar-coat the events or what happened to the victims of the fire. For those that are interested in learning more about the fire, however, this will prove to be an interesting read.
 Very good book about a tragic event January 3, 2008
Having grown up in this area, I was very much aware of the fire and it's consequences. But ... nobody ever really wanted to talk about it. This is a very good account. While reading, though, I grew frustrated because I forgot who was who, where in the tent they were, seemed too much space in chapters before they were mentioned again. But then again, that it reflective of what it was like under that big top. Chaos. Where was everyone in your family or party?
Also good documentation of the investigation. Sometimes a little bit too detailed, but then again, that's what investigations are.
O'Nan did well with this book. Too bad more people in that area refuse to read it. Guess time doesn't always heal pain.
Haunting and absorbing January 2, 2008
I have owned this book for several years and have read and reread it several times. Before picking it up, I had never heard of the fire in Hartford. After reading it, I wanted to find out even more. The best books about historical tragedies and disasters tell not only the story of a single event but convey the mood and atmosphere of the times in which they occurred. Mr. O'Nan does that very well here I think. This is not just a book about a fire but a snapshot of a specific time in American history. I appreciated that he did not shy away from depicting many of the more gruesome details of the fire and its aftermath in detail. To airbrush the details for readers would have shown an utter lack of respect for the victims of the fire as well as the survivors. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning more about American history by studying influential events. The Hartford fire, like the Triangle fire and the Iroquois fire, were great tragedies which created ripples across the entire American landscape. They lead to changes in our values, our workplaces, and our amusements. They are worth remembering, not only to honor their victims but as a part of understanding our American story.
Hard to Put Down December 11, 2007
Having read Stewart O'Nan's novel A Prayer for the Dying and loving it, I decided I would give O'Nan the opportunity to tell a true story of life and death.
As a word of warning for those who come after me, if you are expecting a story centered around 5-10 "main characters," you will be disappointed. This is a story about the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944 and in telling that story, O'Nan attempts to tell the story of EVERYONE who was connected to it. It requires the reader to accept a large "cast of characters" who is willing to follow several threads of the "story" at one time. O'Nan's frenetic, peripatetic telling of the story gives the reader a sense of what it may have been like under the Big Top when it caught on fire.
In telling the story of the Hartford Circus Fire, O'Nan also tells the story of "Little Miss 1565." "Little Miss 1565" was perhaps the most well-known victim of the circus fire. She was named after the number assigned to her body at the city's makeshift morgue. The debate over her identify rages on to this day. O'Nan does refute the contention of Rick Davey and Don Massey's contention that Little Miss 1565 was, in fact Elenaor Cook. For more on Rick Davey and Don Massey, you can check out A Matter of Degree: The Hartford Circus Fire & The Mystery of Little Miss 1565.
Whether Elenaor Cook is properly or improperly identified as "Little Miss 1565" does not change the fact that she died in the Hartford Circus Fire. In telling the story of "Little Miss 1565" O'Nan is really telling the story of those who survived the Circus Fire and those who died.
Dick Hill's narration is utterly breathtaking. He handles O'Nan's frenetic narrative with both style and grace. The only quirk in this production occurs in the one instance in O'Nan's narrative is where a dialog is recounted. Rather than using voice inflection to differentiate the speakers, a production effect is used in which the lines of the opposite speaker are slightly muffled as if Dick Hill is delivering the lines with his hand slightly covering the microphone. Otherwise, Hill's narration is flawless.
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