Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« Among the many circus artists who entered the ring at the end of the eighteenth century, none was destined to achieve greater fame than Andrew Ducrow. Long familiar to both circus and theatre historians, Ducrow was an accomplished mime and actor, and he regularly performed upon the legitimate stage. But he was also an animal trainer, contortionist, and equilibrist; a tightrope dancer, choreographer, and costume designer; an early exhibitor of tableaux vivants; and the manager of Astley’s Amphitheatre in London and director of many of the spectacles produced there from 1825 to 1841.
It was as an equestrian, however, that Ducrow made his most enduring impression. He created a brilliant series of pantomimes on horse-back, in one of which he rode and managed nine horses at once. Variously styled the "Emperor of Horseflesh" and the "Kean of the Circle" for his feats, Andrew Ducrow epitomized the Romantic Age of the English circus.
In tracing Ducrow’s career, A.H. Saxon uncovers a range of topics to delight both the social historian and the general reader: circus architec-ture; histrionic horses, elephants, and man-mon-keys; circus audiences and the training of per-formers; Negroes and Jews in the early circus; the circus on the continent, in England, and in Amer-ica; ballets d’action, mime, and tableaux vivants; Ducrow’s friends and enemies - including Dick-ens, Sir Walter Scott, and Queen Victoria herself.
Remarkably, the biography of Andrew Ducrow has never before been written. Mr. Saxon has used primary - and in many instances, untapped - sources, and his documentation is com-plete. The many myths about Ducrow’s elaborate life are exploded in an appendix on "Ducrow Apocrypha," and Saxon has commented on the iconographic representations he inspired. Nearly one hundred rare illustrations of Ducrow memorabilia have been selected from public and private collections to enhance the text. » Présentation de l’éditeur (1978)