His magazine articles about these experiences, with his wife Jule Junker Mannix,[14] 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.

[18] 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.

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.

As illustrated in a cover art montage by Adolph LeMoult[22] for his book, A Sporting Chance, Mannix engaged in various ancient/traditional forms of hunting, i.e. with a blowgun, boomerang, bow and arrow, and trained hawks and hounds.

[27] A reviewer commented, "The short, photographed in Mexico, shows the huge bird landing gracefully on the arm of good-looking Jewel [sic] Mannix in some of the most beautiful real-life filming on record".

[29] The film was made in collaboration with John Hamlet, coauthor of Birds of Prey of the World, mentor to Jim Fowler, and who at one time maintained an exhibit of over 100 living raptor species at an attraction near Ocala, Florida.

For example, in his book All Creatures Great and Small, Mannix described how as a boy he stayed at his grandparents' country house and kept a variety of wild animals including a porcupine, armadillo, crow, even an alligator.

She then placed her flat palm in front of the snake, This is normally fairly safe for an expert because, unlike vipers like rattlesnakes which stab with their fangs, cobra teeth are small, and they need to bite and chew to inject venom.

[57] In response, another reviewer commented, "Daniel Mannix is rather frowned upon in serious circles because, I suspect, he writes highly readable ('enjoyable' isn't quite the right word) studies of the darker side of human nature, and explores some of the most disturbing episodes in our history".

[59] A substantial portion of the book (Chapters 5 to 12) is a fictional representation of the exploits of Carpophorus, the most famous venator, whose performance at the inauguration of the Flavian Amphitheatre [i.e.: the Coliseum] was immortalized in a poem by Martial, who compared him to Hercules.

In his telling, John Wilkes, a prominent member of the club and parliament, became known as the "American Colonist's 'Greatest Friend'", while in fact he supported the colonies simply to aggravate King George III.

[72] However, in 1981, James A. Rawley published The Transatlantic Slave Trade, A History, which was described in The New York Times Book Review section as a drier account than Black Cargoes but more reliable and thorough.

[73] The dust cover on Black Cargoes included a reduced color reproduction of a print by Johann Moritz Rugendas, Nègres a fond de Calle, 1835, which depicts the degrading conditions in the hull of a slave ship.

[74] In an author's note cited in Sports Illustrated magazine Mannix wrote, "I feel the time has passed, when we can dismiss the feeding habits of predators by saying that they eat only harmful rats and mice.

The review notes that a list of the hawks dietary victims "reads like the index to a field guide for bird watchers, ranging from the American redstart to the wax-wing" and also pheasants, quail and grouse.

For example, in his book, Drifter, set in southern California, a boy named Jeddy and his father, Jeb Proudfoot, help a fisherman friend poach sea lions for captivity.

Jeddy, now on his own and in need of a job, decides to become the show seal trainer to support himself, while going to college to study animal behavior with the likes of Konrad Lorenz and Nico Tinbergen as his models.

Mannix also included reverential references to accounts of sea lion catcher George McGuire and Mark Huling the trainer of Sharkey "the greatest performing seal that ever lived".

Gary Bohan's 2022 book about Sharkey includes historical photographs of George McGuire and the capture of sea lions in his specially designed net deployed from a rowboat, similar to that in Mannix's account.

The coyote and dog mate and as reviewer, Barbara Hodge Hall, poignantly noted, "Only when the pair have coydog pups that become a menace to stock and even man, does the boy have to come to terms with the harsh realities that separate humans and animals".

In the end, with the help of the Clintons (ghost and boy) and colorful Pennsylvania Dutch neighbors, Hobbit and Mary Ellen compete in the carriage event at the Devon Horse Show, a premier Main Line institution, and there are unexpected plot twists regarding inheritance.

One reviewer described the battle with the British as follows: "Knowing their chances are slim, risking their fortune in ivory and their lives, Rutledge and Kitty [his abolitionist wife] rally their native forces—the bodyguard of Manyema cannibals, 500 beautiful Amazon maidens and 16,000 painted and feathered Buntorian warriors [Buntoro being the fictional name of Baganda (southern Uganda)].

The article itself included a full page painting by Bob Kuhn [de], an accomplished artist whose works are a centerpiece of exhibits at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

It featured a full-page pastel drawing by portrait artist, Fred Steffen, of a carnival sex show concessionaire (a "thickset individual who somewhat resembled a large beetle") and his scantily clad, buxom model luring customers into his tent.

[59] The film is a dark historical drama centered on a self-indulgent, petulant emperor opposed by a heroic gladiator (former general then a slave) seeking vengeance for his murdered wife and son.

[159][160] The cover of the 2001 Ballantine paperback edition of the book included a reproduction of the painting Pollice Verso ["Thumbs Down"] (1872) by Jean-Léon Gérôme, an apparent attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the movie.

Such a scene was portrayed on the cover of the 1968 British reprint published by Panther Books, which depicted a young woman about to be dismembered by bulls pulling ropes tied to her hands and feet.

In one account, author, Steve Bodio, claimed that Bellow used material from a yet unpublished manuscript describing Jule and Daniel Mannix hunting iguanas on horseback with his bald eagle, in Mexico.

These schemes include everything from handling prize-fighters, stealing books, smuggling immigrants and selling army surplus in Europe, to organizing new CIO unions, guarding Trotsky in Mexico, training a moody eagle to hunt giant lizards and regenerating mankind by abolishing boredom".

"Even back then, man's wholesale slaughter of game could force wolves to seek out domestic livestock; and the bands of warriors that scourged France left behind them as lupine comestibles the carcasses of war horses and men."