# Grizzly Adams — Struggles and Triumphs character guide

> Grizzly Adams in Struggles and Triumphs by P. T. Barnum.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Old Adams, Adams, old Adams, Old Grizzly Adams

**First appearance:** 0036-xxxiv-menagerie-and-museum-memoranda

## Snapshot

A battered mountain man who wrestled bears for a living, he partners with Barnum while his broken body quietly gives out beneath the hunter's costume.

## Who they are

Adams arrives in New York with a California menagerie and a body wrecked by years of grizzly hugs, yet he performs ferocity with an indomitable will that hides his suffering. He accepts Barnum as an equal partner, trusting the showman to manage while he handles the animals, and his wife comes from Massachusetts to nurse him. His stubborn refusal to lie down, even as doctors predict his death, gives the early museum chapters their starkest portrait of courage as spectacle.

## Relationships

### [Rev. Dr. E. H. Chapin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se/characters/rev_dr_e_h_chapin)

_social_

Grizzly Adams and Rev. Dr. E. H. Chapin meet through Barnum's exhibitions, with Adams being a wild animal showman.

### [Rev. Dr. E. H. Chapin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se/characters/rev_dr_e_h_chapin)

_social_

Grizzly Adams and Rev. Dr. E. H. Chapin meet through Barnum's exhibitions, with Adams being a wild animal showman.

## In the story

### [Menagerie and Museum Memoranda](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se/chapters/xxxiv-menagerie-and-museum-memoranda)

Legendary bear-tamer and hunter, mortally wounded by grizzlies; partners with Barnum and wins a ten-week survival wager.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se/characters/grizzly_adams
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/struggles_and_triumphs_se/characters