Anna Haining Bates, born Anna Swan, grew to seven feet eleven inches and became one of the tallest women in recorded history. This deep dive looks past the Victorian sideshow spectacle to reveal a brilliant, fiercely resilient woman who refused to let her physical dimensions define her humanity.

From a rural Nova Scotia childhood to P.T. Barnum's American Museum, Anna negotiated for a private education and studied acting, piano, and classical voice. We follow her harrowing rescue from a museum fire, her marriage to fellow giant Martin Van Buren Bates, and her quest for a private life.

• Her undiagnosed pituitary gigantism and staggering childhood growth
• Demanding a private tutor as a condition of working for Barnum
• Surviving two catastrophic museum fires by age 21
• Her royal-attended London wedding to Martin  ...