Reading in the Garden

Little Lady with a Big Personality The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin is a fictional account of the very real Lavinia Warren Bump, a woman whose height only reached two feet, eight inches, but who was a giant in spirit.  Born in 1842, Vinnie was a lady ahead of her time. She was a feisty, self-assured woman who took life by the horns.  Despite her height, she was like a determined, spunky mini Scarlett O’Hara. Instead of hiding from the big world, she decided to face it head-on. Her mantra was, “I will not let my size define me.” [1]  When she was seventeen years old, against the wishes of her protective parents, she signed up to be a performer on Colonel Wood’s Floating Palace of Curiosities and Entertainment.  Life wasn’t easy there and Colonel Wood was not the decent, caring cousin he purported to be. So, it was a mixed blessing when, after years of touring, the Civil War began and put an end to their life on the Mississippi River. But Vinnie could