There's a great series of soft-bound books/magazines called Shocked & Amazed by James Taylor - one of the world's foremost experts on sideshow. He used to run the American Dime Museum in Baltimore; now some of his collection resides at the Red Palace in DC - a rock'n'roll/burlesque/sideshow bar where i perform sometimes.

thank you all for your recommendations!

@Valmont: these are the photo books I was talking about

Wild, Weird, and Wonderful: The American Circus Circa 1901-1927: As Seen by F. W. Glasier, Photographer

Step Right This Way: The Photographs of Edward J. Kelty
This one is unfortunately out of print and costs around 200 bucks on ebay...I'm lucky my university library owned a copy that I got to rifle through

i loved it!

SECOND on Freaks, it's the best movie... even if you don't like old movies.


i haven't read any books on circuses themselves, but did read this one about Cooney Island, in New York, which is the mecca of all things sideshow, amusement, shock (literally, some of the 'amusements' were trap doors in the boardwalk, they'd frequently intentionally drop them for fat women so others could laugh - many rides were known to be extremely unsafe, but people just factored in that risk as a natural part of the fun). it's a social history textbook, but it's picture heavy. it'll mention circus culture and sideshow, but also give you more of a sociocultural context for the American in the Progressive era (1890's - 1930's), what drives us to become fascinated with these things, and such.

i loved that book.
it's one of the few college textbooks i saved.

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i am so vain. and yet, so masochistic. how can the two coexist?
-francesca woodman

it may be a bit later than the era you're after, but marion zimmer bradley wrote a brilliant book on the circus in general and the trapeze families in particular called 'the catch trap'.

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we're all just walking each other home. ram dass