The New Yorker
Published Oct. 20, 2014
WILLIAM WELLS BROWN, by Ezra Greenspan (Norton). This biography of the most prolific black author of the Civil War era follows its subject from a slave farm in Missouri through a daring escape to freedom and a career as an abolitionist, writer, temperance advocate, and medical doctor. Born to a slave mother and a white father, Wells Brown wrote histories and novels featuring black characters, which became best-sellers. Nearly as well known in his time as his contemporary Frederick Douglass (with whom he occasionally sparred in the press), Wells Brown was largely forgotten until the civil-rights era “rediscovered” him. Greenspan’s book does much to restore him to his proper place in the canon, and provides an invaluable window into the early moments of the modern black struggle for equality. READ MORE