Daniel P Mannix Popular Books
Daniel P Mannix Biography & Facts
Daniel Pratt Mannix IV (October 27, 1911 – January 29, 1997) was an American writer, journalist, photographer, sideshow performer, stage magician, animal trainer, and filmmaker. One of his two best-known works is the 1958 book Those About to Die (republished in 2001 as The Way of the Gladiator), which was inspiration for the Ridley Scott film Gladiator in 2000 and the upcoming TV drama Those About to Die on Peacock. The other is the 1967 novel The Fox and the Hound, which was loosely adapted into an animated feature film by Walt Disney Productions in 1981. Early life The Mannix family had a long history of service in the U.S. Navy, and Mannix' father, Daniel P. Mannix, III, was an American naval officer. His mother would often join her husband on his postings, and the Mannix children would stay at their grandparents' farm outside Philadelphia. He was an avid reader of books in his grandparents' library. He commented that "On rainy days, I sat in the library and read. During their 200-year residence in Pennsylvania, my family had built up a library containing at least one volume devoted to any conceivable subject". It was there that Mannix also began to keep and raise various wild animals. He wrote fictionalized stories about his animals (supposedly to cover the cost of feeding them) in his first two books, The Back-Yard Zoo, and More Back-Yard Zoo. The Back-Yard Zoo was published in 1934, while he was a senior in college. Following family tradition, Mannix had enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy in 1930, but he could not adjust to the rigorous training. Finally, the commandant wrote a letter to his father saying that "he is definitely not officer material" and he left the Academy. In recounting this experience, Mannix wrote that after leaving, he was so worn down that spent the next two months in bed. However, the following year he was accepted by the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a degree in journalism which he took up after failing zoology. Mannix married Jule Junker in 1939 and she became a partner in his adventures. Their family was listed in the Philadelphia Social Register. A writer and friend of the family wrote: "Families like the Mannix family are also referred to as being from 'old money', although if economic circumstances changed, they might become known as 'fallen aristocracy'". Career Mannix served as a naval lieutenant with the Photo-Science Laboratory in Washington, D.C. during World War II, where he was tasked with creating training films. His civilian career could briefly be described as engaging in various adventurous activities which he filmed for lectures or wrote about in magazines and books. The latter were often enhanced with illustrations by accomplished artists or by his own photographs. He also kept a small menagerie of wild and domestic animals which allowed him to study their behavior and then feature them in print and film. His interest in unsavory, even horrifying, human behavior and attitudes was also featured in some of his books. However, he was also interested in gentler topics such as L. Frank Baum and his books about the land of Oz. Carnival life Mannix joined a traveling carnival after college where he learned to be a sword swallower, fire eater, stage magician, escape artist, mind reader, and lock picker, performing under the stage name The Great Zadma. His magazine articles about these experiences, co-written with his wife Jule Junker Mannix, proved popular and were later expanded into book form in his 1951 account of carnival life, Step Right Up, which in turn was reprinted in 1964 as Memoirs of a Sword Swallower. He claimed that he held the record for many years for swallowing the longest sword (26 inches) although there is no documented proof of that. At the conclusion of Step Right Up, Mannix stated that while still in the carnival (and still single) he borrowed a typewriter from the carnival manager and submitted the manuscript of his first article, How to Swallow a Sword to Colliers magazine and that shortly before he left the carnival, he received notice that it had been accepted. His dream of becoming a freelance writer seemed to be becoming a reality. In the final lines of the book, he wrote "I made up my mind. That night I packed my suitcase, left a note for the Impossible [stage name of his mentor at the Carnival] and started east in my car. In my inside pocket was the letter from Colliers asking for a series of articles based on carnival life. And on the seat beside me was a second-hand typewriter I’d purchased from the carnival manager." The Colliers articles were published from 1944 to 1947. These dates appear inconsistent with the Step Right Up account (i.e.: artistic license was taken in the book), since they were years after his marriage to Jule Mannix in 1939. In any event, most of them were published under the by-line, The Great Zadma as told to Jule Junker Mannix. How to Swallow a Sword, 1944, the first in the series, was printed in condensed form in the Reader's Digest in 1945. A review in The New Yorker magazine described Step Right Up as "A sympathetic and funny account of life with a carnival by a young man who impulsively joined up with one, mastered the elements of fire-eating and sword-swallowing in record time, and then rose, Horatio Alger-like, into the rarefied company of neon-bulb swallower, a coterie whose prestige is offset by a phenomenally high mortality rate." Another review noted that "Step Right Up is not merely Mannix's story but the story of the people he lived with [in the carnival] — how they thought, acted and felt". There's Krinko, the human pincushion who drives a nail through his tongue; Jolly Daisy, the 700-pound fat woman who describes how she feels about her role in life; skinny May who manages huge snakes; Bronko, the cowboy, who can't ride a horse; etc. One of the weirdest in the reviewer's opinion was "the Human Ostrich - He swallowed any and everything he could stuff into his mouth. 'Any object I swallow I regurgitate afterward. The rats are never hurt, neither are the frogs. Before swallowing a frog I always drink a quart of water to give the little fellows something to land in as frogs have feelings just like anyone else' ". In an author's note, Mannix said that he worked "under canvas" for nearly three years and although sideshow feats (such as swallowing neon lightbulbs or swallowing live rats and frogs and bringing them back up again) might seem incredible to most people, he "either performed or saw performed all the stunts I tell about in this book". He added, "Except for combining the events of chronologically separated occasions into one summer, I've told the story of a traveling American carnival as I experienced it—only changing the names of the people with whom I worked". The dustjacket illustration by Leo Hershfield (illustrator, cartoonist, and courtroom artist) for the 1951 hardcover edition of Step Right Up conveys the tongue-and-cheek sty.... Discover the Daniel P Mannix popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Daniel P Mannix books.
Best Seller Daniel P Mannix Books of 2024
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The Four Loves
C. S. LewisThe Four Loves summarizes four kinds of human loveaffection, friendship, erotic love, and the love of God. Masterful without being magisterial, this book's wise, gentle, candi...
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Just Me
Lexy TimmsWe all need somewhere where we feel safe… After leaving her abusive husband, Katherine Marshall is out on her own for the first time. She's hopped from city to city to avoid t...
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Noxious
Lexy TimmsStop setting yourself on fire to keep someone else warm. Brady and Levi have been together since high school, since before he became famous and started thinking only about himself....
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Inception of Gold
Lexy TimmsThings are not as bad as they seem. They are worse. Being the personal assistant to a narcissistic actress who just happens to own the key to my family's undoing isn't ex...
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The Honeymoon Homicide
J. R. Mathis & Susan MathisEnjoy this SmallTown Murder Mystery Featuring A Unique Sleuthing Couple I'm Father Tom Greer, a Catholic Priest in a smalltown parish who never expected this . . . When I came...
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All Fired Up
Kathryn ShayCaptain Jarek Zenko, a war veteran and firefighter, meets Lacey Roth at a bar one night. They don’t share their real identities, even when they retreat to a hotel. When they meet t...
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Hard Love
Peyton BanksHe was football royalty. Legendary quarterback. A champion.  Reiner Strickland had led his team to three national championships and playing a knight in shining armor was a...
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The Great Gatsby
F. Scott FitzgeraldAn Apple Books Classics edition. The Roaring Twenties are in full effect in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s riveting classic. Manabouttown Jay Gatsby seems to have it all, including loads of...
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Eternal
W.J. MayShe will fight for what is hers. When the king is murdered, Katerina, his only daughter, must flee for her life. She finds herself on a strange and dangerous path. Alone for the fi...
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Silenced Girls
Roger Stelljes“ Wow wow wow!  Grips you in a choke hold and  does not let go … Oozes suspense and  bonechilling twists and turns .  Astonishing … One of those...
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Peace on Earth
Maia RossCrime never takes a holiday. Why should Irma? Irma Abercrombie is an energetic retiree with a shadowy past, a mean right hook, and a profound love of Christmas. Surrounded by seaso...
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Coffee Girl
Sophie SinclairMackenzie "Kiki" Forbes finds herself in a pickle. Either become her snarky sister's nanny, or move halfway across the country to work as assistanttothestylist of a ...
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A Christmas Carol
Charles DickensAn Apple Books Classic edition. It’s Christmas Eve in Victorian England. While some families don’t know where their next meal will come from, Ebenezer Scrooge sits in his large hom...
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The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel HawthorneAn Apple Books Classic edition. Hester Prynne lives in infamy. After committing adultery and bearing a child with a man whose name she refuses to divulge, the heroine of Nathaniel ...
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Silver Santa
Lacey SilksTrapped together on Christmas, their unintended onenight stand becomes a lifechanging encounter amidst the snow. Laura Young's professional role as a security guard at the Sil...
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The Target
Lexy TimmsWhen you seek revenge be sure to dig two graves… Revenge was the only thing I had going for me. It kept me awake at night and drove me into desperate situations in dive bars across...
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Masters of Restraint
Ines JohnsonMy new boss is good at giving orders. But his latest demand is NSFW. Especially when his two business partners want in on our deal. My new boss My boss’s boss Their investor &#...
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Pretty Little Lies
Ivy ThornFour years ago, Nicolo Marchetti took my innocence. But he left me with something else Nicolo almost took everything from me. My virginity, my reputation, and very nearly my future...
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A Bookshop to Die For
M.P. BlackDitching her fiancé at the altar, Alice Hartford bolts to her childhood hometown to reconnect with the last, happy remnant of her past: her mom's old bookstore. But the bookst...
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Awaken Me
Jenna JacobHe was more than a ghost haunting my dreams…he was real. By day, I’m Julianna Garrett …a prim, proper accountant. By night, I’m tormented by dreams of an alpha, ambereyed Adonis wh...
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Alpha
Sybil BartelBillionaire. Mercenary. Navy SEAL. The Teams trained me to be a killer. War taught me to be ruthless. Then an illfated mission proved I was human. Combat wounded, cut loose by the ...
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Once Upon A One-Night Stand
Zoey LockeAt first sight, there was electrifying chemistry.  So why not go for it? After all, Lynx Grove, the city's most eligible bachelor, wants to claim her, at least for th...
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The Cupcake Cottage
Jean OramNHL player Maverick Blades could fall in love with anyone... But he had to fall for a woman who falls under the Bro Code as untouchablehis best friend’s beautiful ex, DaisyMae Ray....
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Death at Hazel House
Betty Rowlands‘Riveting, can't put it down! I love this story… a wonderfully twisted tale of a crime that has more twists than I thought possible... fantastic.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars ...
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Bewitching a Highlander
Roma CordonDefying all for the love of a bewitching lass. Breena MacRae, a healer from Skye with a touch of witchery in her blood, embarks on a dangerous search for her missing father. She ar...
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Law of Attraction
Jordan HollisHow to Finally Overcome the Hurdles of Manifesting Proven, effective and enjoyable ways to help you manifest faster… Right now, think of something that makes you successful. If you...
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Caught Up with the Captain
Kait NolanCan a retired naval commander and the love he left behind overcome a 34yearold secret to find their way to a second chance? Captain Mitchell Greyson is a man who believes in duty. ...
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Man In The Water
Jon HillAn attempted murder. A missing spouse. And an international conspiracy that could change the world. Jack Green has always been skeptical of socalled facts. Though he's forced ...
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Holy Bible
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsThe 2013 edition of the Holy Bible contains all of the study aids contained in the 1979 edition and includes revisions to the study aids, several new photos, updated maps, and adju...
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Finding Cinderella
Colleen Hoover#1 New York Times bestselling author of It Starts with Us and It Ends With Us writes a free novella about the search for happily ever after. A chance encounter in the dark leads ei...
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Tempting the King
Jessa YorkAn escaped Mafia Queen, hiding from her past. A Mafia King who wants to claim her… Giselle They think I'm lostbut I know better. I can never be found. The path I've creat...
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School of Potential
W.J. MayUSA Today Bestselling author, W.J. May brings you a continuation of the international bestselling series, The Chronicles of Kerrigan! Come back and enjoy the famous characters, or ...
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Never Enough
Lexy TimmsBe good enough never is... Anthony Accardi is a man on a mission: make his father's watch company a success while bringing in millions of dollars. To do that, he needs an assi...
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Dream Psychology
Sigmund FreudAn Apple Books Classic edition. Written by the founding father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud’s 1899 book is the definitive text on learning to interpret dreams. Freud’s groundbr...
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Good Guy
Kate MeaderHe's a Special Forces veteran making his pro hockey debut. She's a dogged sports reporter determined to get a scoop. She's also his best friend's widow . . . Fa...
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Escape, A New Life
David J AntocciTo save herself, she had to lose everything. Trapped in a tropical paradise with no memory of how she got there, Abby is thrust into a fight for her life. Hunted by a madman, and c...
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Become A Better Version of Yourself
Ben LeightonThis ebook contains golden nuggets on how to motivate, inspire and improve your current situation. It encompasses the holistic view of self improvement from mental& emotion...
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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan DoyleAn Apple Books Classic You get not one, not two, but 25 gripping mysteries in Arthur Conan Doyle’s first of five collections of Sherlock Holmes short stories. Follow the brilliant ...
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Teach Me
Cassandra DeanFrom awardwinning author Cassandra Dean comes a tale where lessons of pleasure between a curious, sunshine widow and a dissolute, grumpy earl leads to passion and allconsuming love...
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His Own Heaven
Jennie KewWinner of the 2021 Passionate Plume Award for BDSM Romance Finalist in the 2021 Stiletto Contest for Contemporary Romance He taught her to trust, she taught him to love. Lucy Bar...
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Whiskey Girl
Melissa BelleThey'll do anything for each other…except commit. Logan Wild isn’t just the hottest broncriding cowboy in Texas. He’s also my best friendwith benefits. And that’s all we’ll ev...
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The Next Girl
Carla KovachIF YOU ONLY READ ONE BOOK THIS YEAR, MAKE IT THE NEXT GIRL... You thought he’d come to save you. You were wrong. ‘ Absolutely the best thriller I’ve read this year! ’ Goodreads Rev...
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Saltwater Cove
Amelia AddlerSecond chances...and the secrets that sabotage them. At 48 years old, Margie Clifton never expected to be starting her life all over again. But when her brother gifts her a propert...
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Teased by Fire
Molly O'HareFrom USA Today bestselling author Molly O’Hare comes an enemiestolovers, older brother’s best friend, romantic comedy with a curvy, antisocial, supernaturalobsessed, allyearround h...
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Wuthering Heights
Emily BrontëAn Apple Books Classic edition. If you’ve only ever seen Wuthering Heights on screen, you may have an image of Catherine and Heathcliff as the ultimate starcrossed lovers. But that...
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The Art of War
Sun TzuAn Apple Books Classic edition. It’s believed that Sun Tzu wrote this Chinese military primer during the 5th century BChundreds of years before the Bible. The book’s 13 chapters ex...
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Dark Psychology and Manipulation
Margaret MorrisonTHE MENTAL MANIPULATOR WILL NO LONGER KEEP SECRETS FROM YOU! Are you fed up with the wool being pulled over your eyes?Are you prepared to stand up to those who believe they can man...
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The Odyssey
HomerAn Apple Books Classic edition. Homer’s eighthcentury epic poem is a companion to The Iliad . It tells the story of Odysseus, who journeys by ship for 10 years after the Trojan War...
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Dracula
Bram StokerAn Apple Books Classic edition. Few characters have seized readers’ imaginations quite like Count Dracula of Transylvania, the hero of Bram Stoker’s classic. The 1897 novel put vam...
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My Paper Heart
Magan VernonOne piece of paper can change everything After my parents received the letter I failed out of college, they didn't ask questions. They just sent me to work for my great aunt i...