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Thirty Years A Slave
Louis Hughes was born a slave near Charlottesville, Virginia to a white father and a black slave woman. Throughout his life he worked mostly…
A Book of Myths
This is a collection of myths--mostly Greek with a smattering of others from the east--written in a clear and easy-to-read style. Lang compl…
Redburn
Melville wrote of some of his earliest experiences at sea in the story of Wellingborough Redburn, a wet-behind-the-ears youngster whose head…
The Wife of His Youth
Published in 1899, The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line is a collection of narratives that addresses the impact of Jim …
The Atrocities of the Pirates
In 1822, Aaron Smith, a young English seaman, was taken captive by Cuban pirates when his ship was boarded en route from Jamaica to England.…
The Monk
Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk: A Romance is a story of frustrated and unrequited desire between mentor and pupil mixed with elements of t…
Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb
Henry Walton Bibb was born a slave. His father was white although his identity was not positively known. Bibb was separated from his mother …
White Jacket
This is a tale based on Melville's experiences aboard the USS United States from 1843 to 1844. It comments on the harsh and brutal realities…
The Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk
This work was the true story of Alexander Selkirk (1676 to December 13, 1721), a Scottish sailor who was employed in a number of different t…
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Johnson's only novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, was originally published anonymously in 1912. It is a fictional novel written …
The Letters of Mark Twain
These letters were arranged in two volumes by Albert Bigelow Paine, Samuel L. Clemens's literary executor, as a supplement to Mark Twain, A …
Journal of A Residence On A Georgian Plantation
Fanny Kemble was a British actress who married mega-plantation owner, Pierce Butler of Georgia. During her marriage she kept journals of eve…
The Marrow of Tradition
In The Marrow of Tradition, Charles W. Chesnutt--using the 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina massacre as a backdrop--probes and exposes the ra…
The Viaticum and Other Stories
This is volume is a collection of 50 of de Maupassant's short stories. Summary by James K. White.
Toussaint L’Ouverture
François-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743-1803) rose to fame in 1791 during the Haitian struggle for independence. In this revol…
My Southern Home
William Wells Brown was born a slave, near Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Elizabeth, was a slave; his father was a white man who never ack…
The House Behind the Cedars
In this, Chesnutt's first novel, he tells the tragic story of love set against a backdrop of racism, miscegenation and “passing” during the …
The Conjure Woman
Published in 1899 by Houghton Mifflin, Chesnutt's first book, The Conjure Woman, was a collection of seven short stories, all set in "P…
The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles
The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles invites listeners to explore the haunting beauty and stark realities of the Galápagos Islands throu…
Iola Leroy
This is the story of Iola Leroy, a free-born, mixed-race woman who passed as white. Her true racial identity eventually discovered, she was …