Well recently sat down with yale universe city professor david blight. Hes one of three editors of a short biography series that focuses on individuals of african descent who shaped American History. Well, joining us now on booktv is long time yale professor david blight. Hes also an author and a Pulitzer Prize winner. Professor blight, what do you teach at yale . Well, i teach about slavery. The civil war and reconstruction. How long have you been teaching that . Well, ive been teaching about that all of my career. Ive been doing it at yale about 20 years. But weve invited you on to talk about a new series that you are editing or producing called the black lives series. What is that . Well, its a series that Yale University press has just begun in the past few years. The three series editors are Henry Louis Gates jr and jacqueline goldsby. Jackie is here at yale and the english department. Skip is course up at harvard. Its a series modeled on another that yale press does called jewish lives, which has now been around 20 or 30 years. Its been very successful series. They are short biographies, usually 200 pages or less. The jewish lives series is as been a triumph. So they decided to do a series called black lives, which is the new series. And we have the first two books coming out in the series just in the next month or so. And many other books in the pipeline, about 18 of them already, i believe, are signed up or the are under air for review. And this, too, will be biographies broadly defined. Now about black lives. Africans, americans, africans, anyone of african descent, including even the literary characters about whom or about which authors will write biography fields. And well talk about some of those books in just a minute. But why the focus on short biographies . Well, theres a lot of a lot of readership out there. As many would know or biography, ive certainly discovered that in the last four years of my life with my biography of Frederick Douglass, biography not only still sells, but it is also the pathway into history for many people. People love reading about individual lives, especially books that not only explain the lives of a person famous in many cases, but not necessarily famous. And other kids, but also the ways in which an individual life reveal a society reveal at times a person lives in or even reviews reveals a culture. So is the ancient craft of biography. It is in some ways, the original form of history, but its designed to reach a broad, serious readership who who love reading relatively short books. These will be roughly in the neighborhood of 200 pages per book, all of them by a distinguished serious scholars, some. Some of our writers were signing our younger authors, writers but we have some very distinguished people who have signed into the series as well. And over a period of years, this series could produce. Oh, id say within the next six years, as many as 20 titles, 25 or possibly even 30 titles that will form a collection of black biographies across across all borders and all time. And there have been other biography series before. There was a famous one. Oh, back in the 1960s, seventies and eighties, done by beacon press. It was edited by oscar handler. These two were these are about American History. And they, too, were relatively short biographies. I can still remember teaching with many of those biographies from that series, especially one of John Winthrop done by edmund morgan. So your most recent book is entitled Frederick Douglass, prophet of freedom, 600 plus pages, correct . Its almost 800. Actually, almost 800. I shortchanged you. Sorry. Thats quite all right. Thats quite all right. So, will this series be looking at people as notable and wellknown as a Frederick Douglass . Yes. We havent signed a book on douglass yet, although i wouldnt rule that out. We probably will down the road. But yes, youre going to find a book soon. But about james baldwin, many black writers are going to be in this series. Its going to be a book. And desmond tutu, the third book in the series, which will come out next summer, this coming summer is on john lewis, the great civil rights leader and congressman. There will be books on anna. Julia cooper, all the martial and others. So, yes, there will be books here on the famous i think were about simon on duke ellington, matter of fact. So these books are across the spectrum of politics and culture and and achievement of all sorts. Its also a series that reaches all the way back to antiquity and right on up to the current day. So theres nothing out of the bounds of this kind of series, including and im particularly proud of this one because we signed the actually good friend, a great shakespeare scholar, James Shapiro at Columbia University to do a biography of the character othello. How do you how do you do that . Well, hes calling it a fellow in america. In other words, it will be the story of the various ways beginning in the 18th, but especially the 19th century, the ways that othello was staged in america, depicted in america, the way othello as a character changed over time in the 19th century into the 20th century. There was a period in the 19th century when othello could not be portrayed as black as the more of venice was white, and then white, and even more especially for performances in the south, where theres going to be a book weve signed on. True to your harris, an important literary scholar is going to do a book on bigger thomas. Richard wrights famous in native son and theres also going to be by Shelley Fisher, fisk and Great American studies scholar. Shes doing a book, a biography, if you like, of the character jim from Huckleberry Finn. Now, that means shes going to be tracing reactions to the character jim depictions of the character jim, ethnic griffey about the character. Over time. And i think some readers of especially readers of literature will find those kinds books fascinating. I cant wait to read the books on othello and jim and those sorts of of works. But there will also be political figures, diplomatic figures, we hope, and certainly literary figures be including legal figures. We havent we havent even touched the surface yet of biographies of great lawyers and judges. And so forth. Well, before we leave, some of these literary figures, would you consider the biography of jim from Huckleberry Finn . In a sense, to be a historical novel. No, i would. I would i would say no to that. And i think Shelley Fisher fishkin would, although i cant speak for her, shes writing that book. No, shes going to be charting the way jim has been interpreted it over time, criticized over time, depicted in art, over time. I mean, it is one of the most famous black characters in any American Work of fiction. Yeah. Jim and Huckleberry Finn and she proposed this to us, and we all said, oh, my god, yes, do it. Because as your audience would know that novel, Huckleberry Finn has been a very controversial over time, especially for its uses of of the nword and the nword is used in related to jim. That character. So, no, this will be almost like an ethnographer, a feat of a literary character over time a kind of biography. It it stretches the, you know, the definition of the genre a bit for sure. Its not an actual living person, of course. Its a character, by the way. We have a couple of books coming down the road already. I probably i cant announce them yet. Theyre not theyre not yet in on certain biblical characters. So, professor blight, as an aside, do you think that Huckleberry Finn should still be taught in english classes, or should it be edited . No, it should not be edited. And absolutely it should be taught. Huckleberry finn is i mean, im a historian, although i. I certainly play a cultural history. No, i dont think it should be edited for anyone to read it. You know, for young readers, a teacher should help them understand the context. Help them help explain the uses of the n word in that book. Help them understand who mark whom mark twain was and the country text of that book and its a its a its a perfect way to help young people begin to get comfortable with ideas like irony and ideas of racism. So no, i would never advocate that that book be censored for its use of language and certainly not for the story is its one of the greatest classics in american literature. In fact, no less than ralph ellison, the great africanamerican novelist of the 20th century, who wrote invisible man said everything changed after huck finn. That that Huckleberry Finn was that was a pivot of american literature. And in terms of of recreating an american language. And ellison said, you know, the writer is black or or otherwise had been respon in a way to the power and achievement of Huckleberry Finn ever since. Now, given your writing career, my guess is that the book coming out by diana berry is one of your favorites or one of your choices. Its about anna marie douglass, the wife of Frederick Douglass. Right now, heres another very intriguing and challenging part of this genre. Now, anna marie douglass, of course, its a very real person. She was Frederick Douglass, his wife of 44 years. But anna remained illiterate all of her life. So we do not have much of anything that anna wrote. We have her her voice to some extent, as spoken about or written about her children or four surviving adult children, and to some extent, commentary about her. But it takes it takes a skilled researcher. I mean, i did some of this for my biography. You have to get at anna, her life, her story through other people and through side doors to her experience. You get at her through the context in which she lived. But she was a truly crucial person in the life of not only Frederick Douglass, but certainly his family and his is for children. And their 21 grandchildren. And so dinah berry proposed to do this, a short biography of anna marie do now and what and what diana is likely to do. Although i dont know, im im not writing that book. Diana is. But she may also deal with annas changing place in our imagination over time or changing place even within the life of Frederick Douglass over time. So that book will have a good deal of imagination about it. At the same time, its going to have a lot Empirical Research of three of the four douglass children left narrative accounts about their mother mother. So there is there is material there is evidence about who anna was, what her temperament was like, what her what her life was like, how important she was as the core of that family and the core, for example, of her Church Community in rochester, new york, or what it was like to move so many times that whole family to move with douglass to washington, d. C. , for example. So, yeah, i really do really look forward to that one. And is not well known even people who really know douglass well or love to read about Frederick Douglass just do not know Anna Douglass very well at all. So david blight, how would you describe the role that you and professors gates and goolsbee play in the black lives series . Well, were our role is the traditional role of series editors. We our job is to find authors who who have an idea or even to plan an idea. For example, in case of jim shapiro, the shakespeare scholar, i simply got in touch with them. And i hey, if the thought of writing a book just on othello, and he said, oh my god, id love to. And then he latched on to this idea of a short book about the play othello, and its kind of a american in its american context over time. So but skip gates has done the same thing and jackie goes is on the same thing, especially with literary characters and figures. I mean, so our job is to solicit manuscripts, the authors and then help the press conceive the series broadly and also our job in part, excuse me, is to give this series chronological range. You know, were in our discussions. Were always trying to balance the 19th century with the 20th century and now with a few books about people, characters from antiquity or shakespeare, for example. So thats our job. And then eventually we read proposals and we recommend up and down to the press and and were now working with a brand new editor at yale press, jesse kendig, who has been hired in part to edit the series, which is quite exciting. And there are a lot of authors out there now beginning to hear about this series, learn about this series, and they have ideas. They, you know, oh, ive always wanted to write about soandso or ive always wanted to write about soandso. And thats kind of the fun of it. How is it being funded . Well, its being funded by Yale University press and actually beyond that, i cant say because im not sure i know. I know that yale press is giving it from one of their fund as a subvention, but also yale press is raising money to fund this series. And then, of course, im sure they hope itll be continue to fund it through sales. The life series has done very well in terms of book sales. There are some now classic short biographies in that series and the hope is that will that will grow of this i mean were published in books also about very known figures which will surprise people people who want to read about black history. People want to read about american or just American History more broadly will be stunned. I think by one of our first two books that comes out in just weeks by Katherine Mooney historian trained here at yale, who teaches at florida state. But shes done a book on isaac murphy, who was the first great African American jockey in the 19th century. He two of the first three kentucky derbies. He was born a slave, lived fascinating life, became a celebrity athlete as a jockey in the 19th century. He was a former slave. He was the most sought after jockey in the horse racing business from the middle of the reconstruction year up to toward the late 19th century. And he lives ultimately a tragic life, which i you know, i dont spoil the story, but hes hes a great story. And most americans, unless theyre aficionados of horse racing, have never heard of isaac murphy, richard has a whos whos a very distinguished historian of abolitionism and a particular black abolitionism has produced a biography of Samuel Ringgold ward, who was a former slave from maryland, who starts his career in canada as an editor, and then another biographer who ends up ultimately lee, a very important abolitionist in an antislavery circles, the 1840s and fifties, but up exiling himself from america by the time of the civil war, but left a remarkable record of the story of a a former fugitive slave out of maryland who builds career as a journalist, editor, newspapers, auto biographer and brilliant commentator hater on the meaning of race and slavery in the united states, hes one of those abolitionists that most have never heard of. Whats the importance of shining a light on more biographies. Well, that all lives matter and lives count and there are some remarkable people in history who didnt leave as much evidence, papers, materials. You know, they become novelists and write 12 novels. They didnt become famous politicians and and in the public eye for years and years, but they lived interesting in some kind of path of life usually in this tradition, some kind of path of of protest tradition of literary tradition, of. You know, organizational, for example, the series is hopefully going to have a couple, if not a few books on major civil rights leaders from the early 20th century, from that age, dubois all the way up through the modern civil rights movement. And some of them are unsung heroes. I lovers of history, love to read about the relat obscure who can become so fascinate ing in a short biography when you realize what they really did or what tried to achieve, or they tried to change. Sometimes those are artists. You know, musicians are a poet or a novelist who who might have had a, you know, a short ten year career like a Paul Laurence. I dont think we sign a claude mckay book already, a harlem renaissance writer of great. I dont think weve signed a Paul Laurence dunbar book yet, but we need to. Hes really the first great modern black poet, although he lived a very short life. How do you match topics with authors. Well, partly that comes from the author telling us what they want to do. Their author just coming forward and saying, i would to write about soandso. And we say, all right, do a proposal on that. And then sometimes say, can you tweak that proposal and maybe take it a little bit . Not direction or where are you finding the evidence on this in the material and on . But sometimes we sit around and we have our zoom meetings and we just kind of dream up topics and then skip or jackie or, or i come up with, well, you know, who might write that or . You know, who might write that . And also, now the press is the series is now more and more widely. The press actually gets proposed and submitted directly to them, to the editors at press. So in other words, ideas for the series can come in through the regular, so to speak. But in many ways, the authors already are matching themselves to the personnel of these or figures they want to about, and they have to make the case, have to know where the sources are, where the evidence is, and then they have to have a, you know, a proposal with a strategy and an outline of how they want to write this book to of david blight books include the frederick biography prophet of freedom came out in 2018 and race reunion in the civil war in american memory, which came out in 2000 to professor blight, are you working on a new book . Oh, yes, im working on a new full life of james weldon johnson, the great African American poet, novelist, diplomat and executive director for oh, 14 years of the acp in 1920s. James weldon johnsons personal papers are all here at yale. Hes major figure, not only in the literary flowering, we call the harlem renaissance, but he was he was a true polymath. He worked in many different fields, so to speak. And he became a kind of cultural for black america with everything from publishing to foundations. He also as many will now know, is the author of the lyrics. His brother, author of the music for the black National Anthem called lift every voice and sing. There hasnt been a major biography of any kind of James Johnson since 1971. Im not doing that in the black lives series, yale, because its not going be a 200 page study. Its going to be a longer, fuller biography. But thats my next book. And of course, imani perry of princeton wrote, the biography of lift every voice. Yes, she did. Thats thats kind. Yeah, it is. Is that kind of a biography of a song over time . Its a its a its a its a wonderful and itll be a very nice guide for me when i get to that part of writing about johnsons, johnson lived an epic life that most americans know next to nothing about and dont tragically, and in a horrific auto accident. Well, david, Yale University history professor and Advisory Board member of the Yale University press black lives series, thanks for being with us on booktv. Thank you. Very glad to be here and to people know about th
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