From the moment Hugh Dermott O'Connor""later to become Francis Joel Smith""was conceived, God's perfect plans for his life were already in motion. Born with Treacher Collins syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects the formation of the face during the first trimester of pregnancy, Infant Hugh's face was so severely deformed emergency surgery was performed moments after his birth just so he could breathe. Soon thereafter, he was deemed deaf and retarded. If Infant Hugh survived, it was believed he was destined to live out his life inside the walls of an institution. Yet his medical team fought valiantly to save this helpless infant's life. The LORD had other plans. Decades earlier, his God-fearing, God-loving adopted parents""Bob and Betty Smith""were divinely brought together and prepared and placed exactly where they needed to be in order to take this struggling, suffering child who battled for survival into their home, just as they already had with ten other challenged and rejected children they adopted before him. His foster mother, Mrs. Lillian Collins""a loving Christian woman""fought to sustain him and meet his immediate needs that included his first hearing aid and hefty doses of prayer. At two and a half years old, he was seamlessly integrated into the Smith household where daily scripture readings and prayer nourished him spiritually, and relentless ongoing tube feedings nourished him physically. Above all, Bob and Betty taught their children to love the LORD no matter what and to never give into their challenges. The LORD steadily provided for their needs, and through prayer and loving guidance, every challenge was met head-on. Today, Dr. Francis Joel Smith is a PhD medical researcher in craniofacial development and is a world-renowned speaker, musician, and advocate for those who suffer from craniofacial anomalies as he has. See our interview! Click Here!

"Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was the most important and the most popular black feminist abolitionist writer and activist of the nineteenth century. A Brighter Day Coming, the most comprehensive collection of her works, includes all the poems from Harper's extant original volumes, plus many that have never been collected and one that was discovered in manuscript; speeches; and a selection of prose, including excerpts from the novel Iola Leroy and the serialized novel Fancy Etchings, and a generous group of letters ..."--Back cover.

The Frances Smith, the first steamboat to be built in Owen Sound, was the largest and most luxurious vessel to sail the Upper Great Lakes from a Canadian port.

Today, most remember “California Girl” Lillian Frances Smith (1871–1930) as Annie Oakley’s chief competitor in the small world of the Wild West shows’ female shooters. But the two women were quite different: Oakley’s conservative “prairie beauty” persona clashed with Smith’s tendency to wear flashy clothes and keep company with the cowboys and American Indians she performed with. This lively first biography chronicles the Wild West showbiz life that Smith led and explores the talents that made her a star. Drawing on family records, press accounts, interviews, and numerous other sources, historian Julia Bricklin peels away the myths that enshroud Smith’s fifty-year career. Known as “The California Huntress” before she was ten years old, Smith was a professional sharpshooter by the time she reached her teens, shooting targets from the back of a galloping horse in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West. Not only did Cody offer $10,000 to anyone who could beat her, but he gave her top billing, setting the stage for her rivalry with Annie Oakley. Being the best female sharpshooter in the United States was not enough, however, to differentiate Lillian Smith from Oakley and a growing number of ladylike cowgirls. So Smith reinvented herself as “Princess Wenona,” a Sioux with a violent and romantic past. Performing with Cody and other showmen such as Pawnee Bill and the Miller brothers, Smith led a tumultuous private life, eventually taking up the shield of a forged Indian persona. The morals of the time encouraged public criticism of Smith’s lack of Victorian femininity, and the press’s tendency to play up her rivalry with Oakley eventually overshadowed Smith’s own legacy. In the end, as author Julia Bricklin shows, Smith cared more about living her life on her own terms than about her public image. Unlike her competitors who shot to make a living, Lillian Smith lived to shoot.

**** New edition of the Greenwood Press original of 1979 (which is cited in BCL3), with a new introduction, chapter, and a supplementary bibliography. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

A definitive guide to race and gender from the pioneers of black women's studies.

Few films in the twenty-first century have represented coming-of-age with the beauty and brutality of Bande de Filles (or Girlhood). This book provides an in-depth examination of Céline Sciamma’s film, focusing on its portrayal of female adolescence in contemporary Paris. Motivated by the absence of black female characters in French cinema, Sciamma represents the lives of figures that have passed largely unnoticed on the big screen. While observing the girls’ tough circumstances, Sciamma’s film emphasises the joy and camaraderie found in female friendships. This book places Girlhood in its cinematic as well as its sociocultural context. Pop music, urban violence, and female friendships are all considered here in a book that draws out the complexity of Sciamma’s deceptively simple portrayal of coming-of-age. Thoughtful, concise, and deeply contemporary, this book is perfect for students, scholars, and general readers interested in youth cultures, European cinema, gender, and sexuality.