When a reverend disapproves of his daughter's suitor, he manipulates the church in an effort to discourage their union and find a more favorable partner. It is a drastic decision that effects those inside and outside of the congregation. Rev. William Barlow is the leader of a Low Church, where his curate is a pompous young man named Henry Sandford. Despite his brash persona, Henry and Barlow's daughter, Dorothy, have fallen in love. Barlow disapproves...

The Voice of a People: Speeches from Black America (2021) is a collection of speeches from some of the leading African American intellectuals, artists, activists, and organizers of the past three centuries. While many of their names-such as Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Frederick Douglass-will be familiar to most readers, some-such as Jermain Wesley Loguen, Randall Albert Carter, and Samuel H. Davis-are less well known, but no less important...

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852) is a novella by Frederick Douglass. Having escaped from slavery in the South at a young age, Frederick Douglass became a prominent orator and autobiographer who spearheaded the American abolitionist movement in the mid-nineteenth century. In this famous speech, published widely in pamphlet form after it was given to a meeting of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society on July 5th, 1852, Douglass exposes...

William Shakespeare (1864) is an experimental biography by Victor Hugo. Written while the poet was living in exile on the island of Guernsey, William Shakespeare was doomed to fail at its conception. Condemned by critics who expected Hugo to focus on the works of the Elizabethan playwright, William Shakespeare is in reality a sweeping biography of literature itself, a touching tribute to the spirit of creativity which defines humanity's life on earth...

Originally published in two volumes between 1923 and 1925, Africa for Africans, Or, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey is a compilation of letters, speeches and essays by one of the Fathers of Pan-Africanism. Hailed by Martin Luther King Jr. as, "the first man of color...to make the Negro feel like he was somebody," Garvey was a polarizing yet influential figure whose legacy continues to be felt today. These philosophies, collected by his...

Love's Labour's Lost (1596) is a comedy by William Shakespeare. The play was written to be performed for Queen Elizabeth at the Inns of Court, and has frequently been recognized for its length and complex wordplay. Although rarely staged up until the nineteenth century, Love's Labour's Lost has seen a resurgence over the last century, serving as source material for musicals, films, and television shows alike. "Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,...

In 1905, after suffering a relapse and spending a few months at The Hartford Retreat, Clifford Whittingham Beers elected to write a book about his experiences living with mental illness and being subject to cruel treatment and physical abuse while being institutionalized. Titled, A Mind That Found Itself, the 1908 autobiography told the story of a young man who had suffered a life full of personal tragedy, leading to feelings of intense anxiety, paranoia...

"Here, I thought, was one of the most melodramatic and gorgeous bits of Americana that had ever come my way. It was not only the theater - it was the theater plus the glamour of the wandering drifting life, the drama of the river towns, the mystery and terror of the Mississippi itself... I spent a year hunting down every available scrap of show-boat material; reading, interviewing, taking notes and making outlines." Inspired by an offhand comment...

The Water of the Wondrous Isles (1897) is a fantasy novel by William Morris. Although he is widely regarded as one of the most influential designers of the Victorian era, Morris was also a dedicated socialist and gifted novelist whose art explores the politics of his time through the lens of the imagination. Morris' work in the genres of fantasy and utopian science fiction is an underrecognized but nevertheless vital aspect of his contribution to...

Conceived by Jamaica's first Poet Laureate, Thomas MacDermot, The All Jamaican Library is where literary publishing in Jamaica found its footing. This indigenous imprint was designed to put forth work written by Jamaicans about Jamaica while being reasonably priced in order to remain accessible to the locals. Though it only ran for six years, MacDermot published two of his own novels, Becka's Buckra Baby (1904) and One Brown Girl and ¼ (1909) comprising...