The True History Of The Elephant Man

New York: Penguin Books. Good+ with no dust jacket. 1980. Paperback. Text is clean. Pages tanning. Cover shows normal shelfwear. ; From back cover: Here is the fullest account available of the strange and horrifying life of John Merrick, the Elephant Man - from his birth in Leicester in 1862 to his final stay at the London Hospital, where he became a celebrity visited by the rich and famous. Suffering from a progressive, grotesquely disfiguring disease, young Merrick succumbed to exploitation on the freak-show circuit until he was rescued by a fashionable London surgeon, who dared to look beyond his loathsome flesh. Revealed as a real human being, filled with yearnings and desires, Merrick's story turns from one of suffering and degradation into a shining example of the human spirit. Thoroughly researched from a wealth of public files and private attics, this is a unique portrait of a courageous man who died the way he lived - in a desperate attempt to be like other people. ; Mass Market PB; 8vo; 224 pages .