Books Written by African-American Authors (not yet in the catalogue)

[MaryAnnSpiegel]

I have already set up on the Project Generator the novel Cane by Jean Toomer. I used to teach it and couldn't resist. I hope that is all right. Jim

That's wonderful Jim. As will all suggestions on this board (and in this thread), anyone is welcome to start any project that grabs them. Thanks for letting us know.

Chuck - I've updated the first post to remove "Cane" since it has been adopted.

MaryAnn

[NicholiVolta]

Happy to see a list like this exists. Two things:

1: It seems Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom has been cataloged since this post was written. https://librivox.org/my-bondage-and-my-freedom-by-frederick-douglass/

2: Another piece of African American Literature:
Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, by Henry Box Brown
https://books.google.com/books/about/Narrative_of_the_Life_of_Henry_Box_Brown.html?id=630IAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false

This book weirdly isn't freely available on Gutenberg nor Archive.org despite the fact that it is obviously public domain, having been published in 1851.

[Pinklady77]

My current solo project is almost finished. I would like to know if I should wait until it is complete and in the catalogue before claiming another book from here?

[MaryAnnSpiegel]

Thank you Nicholi. I've updated the first post with the items you noted. I did find an earlier version of Brown's book on Archive, and I found the 1851 edition on the University of North Carolina's website, in what appears to be a PD version. I've also included that link as sometimes people outside the US have trouble accessing Google Books.

Lola - congratulations on "almost" completing your first solo! You are welcome to start any book on the list whenever you are ready.

MaryAnn

[Pinklady77]

Hi MaryAnn

I want my next solo to be Nellie Brown or the Jealous husband from the above list.

I would like a suggestion on how to categorize the first few sections since its all one continuous story.

Thanks

[annise]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by categorise, its a book by a single author, with a number of shorter stories with the title of the first one - there are many similar in the catalogue.
If you just set it up as a solo, your MC will help you with the finer details. The first story looks too long for a single section, so the section titles would nood to be
Nellie Brown part 1
Nellie Brown part 2 etc
or if you divide it by chapters
Nellie Brown Chapter 1 etc

and so on with the other stories
Just work out about how many sections you plan to have - it is possible for you to add more as you read, but preplanning is a good idea

Anne

[Pinklady77]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by categorise, its a book by a single author, with a number of shorter stories with the title of the first one - there are many similar in the catalogue.
If you just set it up as a solo, your MC will help you with the finer details. The first story looks too long for a single section, so the section titles would nood to be
Nellie Brown part 1
Nellie Brown part 2 etc
or if you divide it by chapters
Nellie Brown Chapter 1 etc

and so on with the other stories
Just work out about how many sections you plan to have - it is possible for you to add more as you read, but preplanning is a good idea

Anne

Thank you for that help. I wasn't sure how to work that out. I will definitely have to break some of that down more.

[NicholiVolta]

Good job finding Henry Box Brown's book Mary! Just remembered another piece of non-fiction African-American public domain literature. Again, I'm having trouble finding it easily available:

Memoirs of the Life of Boston King (1798), by Boston King
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/Boston_King.pdf

That's the only place I can seem to find it. His name makes it problematic to try to find his story. If anyone wants to try to find a better version of it, be my guest.

[mightyfelix]

Good job finding Henry Box Brown's book Mary! Just remembered another piece of non-fiction African-American public domain literature. Again, I'm having trouble finding it easily available:

Memoirs of the Life of Boston King (1798), by Boston King
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/Boston_King.pdf

That's the only place I can seem to find it. His name makes it problematic to try to find his story. If anyone wants to try to find a better version of it, be my guest.

Interesting. You probably wouldn't find it under his name anyway, since it looks like it was published as a part of a collection. Your link says it is from "The Methodist Magazine, March 1798." I found several volumes of this magazine at archive.org, but not this volume, it seems.

It just so happens that I live and work very close to a Methodist university which appears to have all, or almost all, of these volumes in its library. If you really want to read it, I may be able to go by there and see if they'll let me scan the relevant pages. I'm not sure when, though. Not this week, but maybe next.

EDIT: On a closer look, it appears that it was published in serial form, in four installments from March to June. We'd need to find all four volumes.

[NicholiVolta]

Good job finding Henry Box Brown's book Mary! Just remembered another piece of non-fiction African-American public domain literature. Again, I'm having trouble finding it easily available:

Memoirs of the Life of Boston King (1798), by Boston King
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/Boston_King.pdf

That's the only place I can seem to find it. His name makes it problematic to try to find his story. If anyone wants to try to find a better version of it, be my guest.

Interesting. You probably wouldn't find it under his name anyway, since it looks like it was published as a part of a collection. Your link says it is from "The Methodist Magazine, March 1798." I found several volumes of this magazine at archive.org, but not this volume, it seems.

It just so happens that I live and work very close to a Methodist university which appears to have all, or almost all, of these volumes in its library. If you really want to read it, I may be able to go by there and see if they'll let me scan the relevant pages. I'm not sure when, though. Not this week, but maybe next.

EDIT: On a closer look, it appears that it was published in serial form, in four installments from March to June. We'd need to find all four volumes.

That's great to hear Devorah! I'm busy with school right now, so I don't really have anytime to do the reading of it myself, but I would love to see Boston King's story made more available for the simple reasons that it's public domain and his life was an interesting part of history. I only ever got to read a small part of his story in an unrelated book. You don't have to go and try to get that done, but if you want to I'd be quite grateful, and I'm sure many others would be too.

[NicholiVolta]

More non-fiction pieces:

An Apology for African Methodism by Benjamin T. Tanner
https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/tanner/tanner.html

The Color of Solomon--what? A Monograph by Benjamin T. Tanner
https://archive.org/details/25637551.4684.emory.edu

The negro's origin: and is the negro cursed? by Benjamin T. Tanner
https://archive.org/details/negrosoriginisne00tann

Narrative of the Life of J.D. Green, a Runaway Slave, from Kentucky by J. D. Green
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15128

[mightyfelix]

Copying this from a separate thread, as I think it well deserves to be added to this list.

Keckley was dressmaker and good friend to Mary Todd Lincoln. There is a belated obit in The New York Times for Oct 7 2019.
From the obit:
“What a life she had,” George Saunders said in an email, “to go from slavery to the White House, lose a son in the war, write a book, befriend the Lincolns, fall out of their favor, witness so many essential historical moments. To me, her book is beautiful and I think we are so lucky to have it.”

I'm a Lincoln buff and considered recording this but I think it probably would sound better with a female voice.

Behind the Scenes by Elizabeth Keckley

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24968

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Keckley

[sarahrejoice]

So glad to see this thread exists. I would love to help read one of the poetry projects, if someone starts it. In particular, "The Wings of Oppression" by Leslie Pinckney Hill has piqued my interest. Please feel free to send me a PM if I can be of help in kicking this one off.

[MaryAnnSpiegel]

Thank you Nicholi, first post updated.
MaryAnn

More non-fiction pieces:

An Apology for African Methodism by Benjamin T. Tanner
https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/tanner/tanner.html

The Color of Solomon--what? A Monograph by Benjamin T. Tanner
https://archive.org/details/25637551.4684.emory.edu

The negro's origin: and is the negro cursed? by Benjamin T. Tanner
https://archive.org/details/negrosoriginisne00tann

Narrative of the Life of J.D. Green, a Runaway Slave, from Kentucky by J. D. Green
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15128

[MaryAnnSpiegel]

Copying this from a separate thread, as I think it well deserves to be added to this list.

Keckley was dressmaker and good friend to Mary Todd Lincoln. There is a belated obit in The New York Times for Oct 7 2019.
From the obit:
“What a life she had,” George Saunders said in an email, “to go from slavery to the White House, lose a son in the war, write a book, befriend the Lincolns, fall out of their favor, witness so many essential historical moments. To me, her book is beautiful and I think we are so lucky to have it.”

I'm a Lincoln buff and considered recording this but I think it probably would sound better with a female voice.

Behind the Scenes by Elizabeth Keckley

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24968

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Keckley

Thank you Devorah. This is already in the catalog here: https://librivox.org/behind-the-scenes-by-elizabeth-keckley/
MaryAnn