First published in 1911, The Quest of the Silver Fleece is set in Washington, D.C., and Alabama. The silver fleece refers to the cotton industry, owned by powerful white men, who continued to make their fortune through the labor of African-Americans. In the story, Blessed Alwyn tries to come to terms with how a black man can integrate into society. He gets an education and moves to Washington, where he meets well-to-do blacks who seem to be living the kind of lives slaves had struggled for. Only, Blessed comes to find out, they have to make many compromises in order to be accepted by their white neighbors. Anyone with an interest in race relations and life at the turn of the 20th century will find this book about economics, race, love, and the hero's quest an astute sociological study. American writer, civil rights activist, and scholar WILLIAM EEDWARD BURGHARDT DUBOIS (1868-1963) was the first black man to receive a PhD from Harvard University. A cofounder of the NAACP, he wrote a number of important books, including The Philadelphia Negro (1899), Black Folk, Then and Now (1899), and The Negro (1915).

Describes the cycle of myths about the Argonauts and the quest for the Golden Fleece, as well as the tales of the Creation of Heaven and Earth, the labors of Hercules, Theseus and the Minotaur, etc.

Sixteen tales offer insights into the lives of African Americans after the Civil War, recounting the promise of northward migration, the horrors of lynching, and the complexity of relationships between former slaves and masters.

“From the moment I read the words [my great-grandmother] Frances Anne Rollin wrote in Boston on January 1, 1868—“The year renews its birth today with all its hopes and sorrows”—she became my beacon, the foremother who would finally share with me our collective past . . . —From the Preface Originally published to rave reviews, Pride of Family is the dazzling true story of an upper middle-class African American clan—and four generations of extraordinary women. Carole Ione, rebel daughter from a long line of rebel daughters, traces her heritage from her mother, Leighla, a sad and lovely journalist, actress, and composer; to glamorous grandmother Be-Be, the popular restaurateur and former showgirl; to upright great-aunt Sistonie, one of Washington’s first black female physicians; and, finally, to great-grandmother Frances Anne Rollin, the indomitable feminist-abolitionist. It is through her great-grandmother’s brilliant diaries that Ione finds enlightenment—a deep connection to the women she cherishes and the proud, glorious history they share.

Constraints on freedom, education, and individual dignity have always been fundamental in determining who is able to write, when, and where. Considering the singular experience of the African American writer, William W. Cook and James Tatum here argue that African American literature did not develop apart from canonical Western literary traditions but instead grew out of those literatures, even as it adapted and transformed the cultural traditions and religions of Africa and the African diaspora along the way.Tracing the interaction between African American writers and the literatures of ancient Greece and Rome, from the time of slavery and its aftermath to the civil rights era and on into the present, the authors offer a sustained and lively discussion of the life and work of Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison, and Rita Dove, among other highly acclaimed poets, novelists, and scholars. Assembling this brilliant and diverse group of African American writers at a moment when our understanding of classical literature is ripe for change, the authors paint an unforgettable portrait of our own reception of “classic” writing, especially as it was inflected by American racial politics.

The renowned knitter shares her year-long adventure through America’s colorful, fascinating—and slowly disappearing—wool industry. Join Clara Parkes as she ventures across the country to meet the shepherds, dyers, and countless workers without whom our knitting needles would be empty, our mills idle, and our feet woefully cold. Along the way, she encounters a flock of Saxon Merino sheep in upstate New York, tours a scouring plant in Texas, visits a steamy Maine dyehouse, helps sort freshly shorn wool on a working farm, and learns how wool fleece is measured, baled, shipped, and turned into skeins. In pursuit of the perfect yarn, Parkes describes a brush with the dangers of opening a bale (they can explode), and her adventures from Maine to Wisconsin (“the most knitterly state”) and back again. By the end of the book, you’ll be ready to set aside the backyard chickens and add a flock of sheep instead.