Bill Ballantine (1910 to 1999) was a writer and illustrator of circus subjects, as well as a professional clown. A prolific writer, Ballantine contributed circus and travel essays to major magazines. His many stories of circus life appeared in Collier's, Holiday, Harper’s Bazaar, Saturday Evening Post, True, Saga, and Seventeen. Ballantine also authored ten books, including Wild Tigers and Tame Fleas, Horses and Their Bosses, and Clown Alley, which chronicles his years as dean of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Clown College. Over his long career, he published nearly 100 articles on circus and travel and regularly illustrated True magazine's backpage feature "Strange but True" with his graceful and warmly humorous pen-and-ink line drawings.