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"Gus the Great" is a great forgotten work of popular fiction. 42 years old, and nearly broke, author Thomas W. Duncan had spent ten years writing the book - the story of a man who's yearning for success.

Every detail of Gus's life is detailed, to form the book's giant-sized tragedy. He's the illegitimate lovechild of a rich railroad tycoon and a fun-loving small town woman who appreciated the tycoon's attention. He's adopted by a world-wise newspaperman and his cantankerous grizzled typesetter. As a young man Gus becomes a newspaperman himself, shmoozing the city officials and rising to prominence. But a real opportunity opens when a prosperous businessman takes an interest in Gus's grandest scheme of all. And another opportunity appears when Gus senses another interest from the businessman's daughter...

Published in 1947, this book offers a fascinating glimpse of two eras in middle America. Its flashbacks show the turn-of-the-century town, resisting the arrival of the streetcar and scandalized by an unwed mother. The newspaper men argue skeptically over the prospect of new printing presses, and the tycoon romances his conquest in a horse-drawn buggy on the way to a gas-lit music hall. The most inspiring sight Gus ever sees is the arrival of painted circus wagons at sunrise. And Gus's bitter, abusive father eventually flees town to join the Alaskan gold rush. When these flashbacks end, Gus is returned to his adult life in contemporary America. But whatever sophistication the country has gained will now be conquered by Gus's deep-rooted ambition.

There's a reality to his excitement, since the book's personalities all ring true. The boy who loved the circus grows up to exhibit an elephant at the city's park. His hunger for success leads him to bargain shrewdly for an entire array of circus animals. The marriage is unhappy, offering one more reason to take the act on the road. But will his dreams ultimately fall into the hands of unappreciative businessmen? There's another joyful story that's hiding behind the book - one man's love of fiction-writing.

Crafting Gus's character, in all its complexity, was an obvious labor of love for Thomas Duncan. His characters are colorful, with their back stories fully realized. Each holds a secret humanity, with their own hopes and fears and their own private kindnesses. Even the elephant at the circus gets a touching vignette about her relationship with a loyal dog. As the tale of a circus master shows the real-life showmanship of the book's author, even his gaudiness becomes endearing. "As a literary performance, Gus the Great is frequently slick, gaggy and sentimental," Time magazine wrote in 1947.

"But it has a kind of animal vigor about it and it is never dull."

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