Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 –  April  7,  1891)  was  an  American showman, businessman, scam artist and entertainer,  remembered  for  promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus  that  became  the  Ringling  Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Although Barnum was also an author, publisher, philanthropist,  and  for  some  time  a politician, he said of himself, "I am a showman  by  profession…  and  all  the gilding shall make nothing else of me," and  his  personal  aims  were  "to  put money in his own coffers."

Barnum is widely but erroneously credited with coining the phrase  "There's  a  sucker born every minute." Barnum became a small-business  owner  in  his  early twenties,  and  founded  a  weekly newspaper, before moving to New York City  in  1834.  He  embarked  on  an entertainment career, first with a variety troupe  called  "Barnum's  Grand Scientific  and  Musical  Theatre,"  and soon  after  by  purchasing  Scudder's American  Museum,  which  he  renamed after himself. Barnum used the museum as  a  platform  to  promote  hoaxes  and human curiosities. The circus business was the source of much of his enduring fame. 

He established  "P.  T.  Barnum's Grand  Travelling  Museum,  Menagerie, Caravan  &  Hippodrome,"  a  travelling circus,  menagerie  and  museum  of "freaks,"  which  adopted  many  names over  the  years.  Barnum  wrote  several books,  including  Life  of  P.T.  Barnum (1854),  The  Humbugs  of  the  World (1865), Struggles and Triumphs (1869), and The Art of Money-Getting (1880).

One  of  Barnum's  more  successful methods  of  self-promotion  was  mass publication  of  his  autobiography. Barnum eventually gave up his copyright to  allow  other  printers  to  sell inexpensive editions. At the end of the 19th  century  the  number  of  copies printed  was  second  only  to  the  New Testament  in  North  America.  (Source: Wikipedia)

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