The Great Farini: The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

If only half of William Hunt’s life is to be believed, the world has
somehow overlooked one of its most eminent Victorians. In the span of
nine decades, Hunt managed to become a world-class gymnast, a soldier, a
successful inventor, a circus promoter, an explorer, an archaeologist, a
horticulturist, a poet, a writer, and a painter. He was also a
documented liar, racist, womanizer, and ruthless exploiter of protegés
and children.

William Hunt would be a challenge to any biographer. As a 19th-century
showman, he constantly reinvented himself. To spice up his first
rope-walking act, Hunt adopted the stage name “Guillermo Antonio
Farini.” While still a novice, Farini repeatedly crossed the Niagara
gorge on a slack wire and matched the world-famous “Great Blondin”
stunt for stunt. Farini had several equally mysterious protegés
including, Lulu, an orphan who twice changed genders, Zazel the Human
Cannon Ball, and a bearded woman named Krao whom Farini shamelessly
promoted as Darwin’s missing link.

Author Shane Peacock, who has deep roots in Farini’s home town of
Port Hope, has managed to capture his subject for what he really was—a
driven genius who, despite pink tights and purple prose, was just
another Victorian pursuing wealth and respectability. In unearthing
Farini from obscurity, Peacock has produced a fine book.