Carretta offers the first full-length biography of Phillis Wheatley (1753?-1784), who became the first English-speaking person of African descent to publish a book and only the second woman--of any race or background--to do so in America.

"This new edition incorporates significant discoveries that Carretta and others have made since the book's initial publication about Wheatley's education, affiliations, activities, publications, marriage, husband, maternity, later years, and the posthumous survival of the manuscript of her proposed second volume of writings. Moreover, this new edition gives Carretta the opportunity to reconsider some previously available evidence"--