Frederick Douglass

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

£55

Introduced By Kwame Dawes

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the powerful memoir of an American slave, published with photographic portraits and a new introduction exclusive to the Folio edition.

£55

Book Details

Presentation Box & BindingBound in printed and blocked gold cloth
Blocked slipcase

Dimensions8 inches x 5¼ inches

FontSet in Bell

Pages200 pages

AuthorFrederick Douglass

IllustrationFrontispiece plus 6 colour photographs

Publication Date11/10/2022

Editor's Notes

Born into slavery in Maryland, Frederick Douglass escaped bondage to become an abolitionist leader, orator and politician, and one of the most famous African-Americans of the 19th century. His autobiographical Narrative – an immediate bestseller in 1845 – was soon acknowledged as a pivotal text in the struggle against slavery. In this moving and beautifully written account, he lays bare a system that brutalised everyone it touched. Douglass tells of his childhood and youth under a succession of slaveholders, his secret efforts to gain an education, his dawning political consciousness and his determination to escape. This definitive Folio edition includes the complete text of the Narrative, along with Douglass’s famous 1852 speech, ‘What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?’ Bound in striking gold cloth, it bears a photographic portrait of Douglass on the cover – one of eight chosen for the edition. In an exclusive new introduction, poet and literary critic Kwame Dawes emphasises how ‘the struggle for the equality of people of African descent in the United States and around the world make this work relevant today.’

About the photography

An inspirational figure

Although the Narrative is a powerfully direct eyewitness account of slavery, Douglass knew the value of projecting his image to make the greatest impact – both with his life story and in the use of photography. He sat for more than 160 camera portraits, making him the most photographed man of the 19th century. Those included here, from various stages of his early life as he rose to become a great statesman, were ‘reproduced in newspapers, magazines, postcards, and posters’. Some were taken while he was still a fugitive slave, placing him in considerable peril, and according to Kwame Dawes’s incisive new introduction, they show how he ‘mobilized his image as a weapon, as an affront to white supremacy.’

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About the photography

An inspirational figure

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About the Introducer

Kwame Dawes is a poet, novelist and critic who is professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he edits Prairie Schooner magazine. Originally from Ghana and raised in Jamaica, he was awarded a PhD from the University of New Brunswick and has lived and taught in North America for over 30 years. For his poetry he has won the Pushcart Prize, a Forward Poetry Prize and a Commonwealth Writers Prize, among other accolades; his most recent collection is City of Bones. His poetry collection, Duppy Conqueror, includes a sonnet narrated in the voice of Frederick Douglass.

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