| Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century's Most Photographed American Contributor(s): Stauffer, John (Author), Trodd, Zoe (Author), Bernier, Celeste-Marie (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0871404680 ISBN-13: 9780871404688 Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation OUR PRICE: $44.96 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 2015 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Historical - Biography & Autobiography | Social Activists - Biography & Autobiography | Cultural, Ethnic & Regional - African American & Black |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 2015020546 |
| Physical Information: 1.2" H x 9.3" W x 12.1" (3.60 lbs) 320 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Topical - Black History |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Picturing Frederick Douglass is a work that promises to revolutionize our knowledge of race and photography in nineteenth-century America. Teeming with historical detail, it is filled with surprises, chief among them the fact that neither George Custer nor Walt Whitman, and not even Abraham Lincoln, was the most photographed American of that century. In fact, it was Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), the ex-slave turned leading abolitionist, eloquent orator, and seminal writer whose fiery speeches transformed him into one of the most renowned and popular agitators of his age. Now, as a result of the groundbreaking research of John Stauffer, Zoe Trodd, and Celeste-Marie Bernier, Douglass emerges as a leading pioneer in photography, both as a stately subject and as a prescient theorist who believed in the explosive social power of what was then just a nascent art form. Indeed, Frederick Douglass was in love with photography. During the four years of Civil War, he wrote more extensively on the subject than any other American, even while recognizing that his audiences were riveted by the war and wanted a speech only on this mighty struggle. He frequented photographers' studios regularly and sat for his portrait whenever he could. To Douglass, photography was the great democratic art that would finally assert black humanity in place of the slave thing and at the same time counter the blackface minstrelsy caricatures that had come to define the public perception of what it meant to be black. As a result, his legacy is inseparable from his portrait gallery, which contains 160 separate photographs. At last, all of these photographs have been collected into a single volume, giving us an incomparable visual biography of a man whose prophetic vision and creative genius knew no bounds. Chronologically arranged and generously captioned, from the first picture taken in around 1841 to the last in 1895, each of the images--many published here for the first time--emphasizes Douglass's evolution as a man, artist, and leader. Also included are other representations of Douglass during his lifetime and after--such as paintings, statues, and satirical cartoons--as well as Douglass's own writings on visual aesthetics, which have never before been transcribed from his own handwritten drafts. The comprehensive introduction by the authors, along with headnotes for each section, an essay by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and an afterword by Kenneth B. Morris, Jr.--a direct Douglass descendent--provide the definitive examination of Douglass's intellectual, philosophical, and political relationships to aesthetics. Taken together, this landmark work canonizes Frederick Douglass through a form he appreciated the most: photography. Featuring:
|
Contributor Bio(s): Gates, Henry Louis: - Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Ph.D.Cambridge), is Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and American Research, Harvard University. He is the author of Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008; Black in Latin America; Tradition and the Black Atlantic: Critical Theory in the African Diaspora; Faces of America; Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self; The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Criticism; Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars; Colored People: A Memoir; The Future of Race with Cornel West; Wonders of the African World; Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man; and The Trials of Phillis Wheatley. His is also the writer, producer, and narrator of PBS documentaries Finding Your Roots; Black in Latin America; Faces of America; African American Lives 1 and 2; Looking for Lincoln; America Beyond the Color Line; and Wonders of the African World. He is the editor of African American National Biography with Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, and The Dictionary of African Biography with Anthony Appiah; Encyclopedia Africana with Anthony Appiah; and The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts, as well as editor-in-chief of TheRoot.com.Trodd, Zoe: - Zoe Trodd is professor and chair of American literature in the Department of American and Canadian Studies at the University of Nottingham.Bernier, Celeste-Marie: - Celeste-Marie Bernier is professor of African American studies in the Department of American and Canadian Studies at the University of Nottingham.Morris, Kenneth B.: - Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. is descended from two of the most important names in American history: he is the great-great-great grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great-great grandson of Booker T. Washington. He is also the Founder and President of the public charity, Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, which uses education in schools across the U.S. to address and prevent contemporary forms of slavery or human trafficking in communities.Stauffer, John: - John Stauffer is professor of English, American studies, and African American studies at Harvard University. |