One of the first novels published by an African American woman, “Iola Leroy” is the progressive 1892 novel by famed American abolitionist, suffragist, teacher, and writer, Frances Harper. Born free in Baltimore, Maryland in 1825, Frances Harper came to live with the family of William Still, noted conductor of “The Underground Railroad”, and in 1853 joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and began a career as a public speaker and activist for the abolition of slavery and for women’s right...

A certain widely-travelled New Yorker, a gourmet who sometimes prepares his own dishes, was recently asked his opinion of Spécialités de la Maison, issued by the American Friends of France.His reply: "I enjoyed it tremendously because it is a sort of travelogue of cuisine compounded by a number of gay and intelligent people who have made their mark in the world, and who evidently have a wholesome respect for the pleasures of the table. To me it is valuable for those dread ...

In the tradition of Agent Zigzag comes this breathtaking biography, as fast-paced and emotionally intuitive as the very best spy thrillers, which illuminates an unsung hero of the French Resistance during World War II—Robert de La Rochefoucald, an aristocrat turned anti-Nazi saboteur—and his daring exploits as a résistant trained by Britain's Special Operations Executive.A scion of one of the most storied families in France, Robert de La Rochefouc...

Leonie Frieda, the bestselling author of Catherine de Medici, returns to sixteenth-century Europe in the evocative and entertaining biography, Francis I.Catherine de Medici's father-in-law, King Francis of France, was the perfect Renaissance knight, the movement's exemplar and its Gallic interpreter. An aesthete, diplomat par excellence, and contemporary of Machiavelli, Francis was the founder of modern France, whose sheer force of will and persona...

When Nicholas Shakespeare stumbled across a box of documents belonging to his late aunt, Priscilla, he was completely unaware of where this discovery would take him and what he would learn about her hidden past. The glamorous, mysterious figure he remembered from his childhood was very different from the morally ambiguous young woman who emerged from the trove of love letters, photographs, and journals, surrounded by suitors and living the dangerous existence of a British woman in a countr...

A brilliantly original and gripping new look at the sinking of the Titanic through the prism of the life and lost honor of J. Bruce Ismay, the ship's ownerBooks have been written and films have been made, we have raised the Titanic and watched her go down again on numerous occasions, but out of the wreckage Frances Wilson spins a new epic: when the ship hit the iceberg on April 14, 1912, and one thousand men, lighting their last cigarettes, prepared to die, J. Bru...

"Beautiful and unflinching . . . a riveting story about the fall of an American family, an American city, and possibly the American Dream itself." —Janis Cooke Newman, author of Mary, Mrs. A. LincolnFrances Stroh's earliest memories are ones of great privilege: shopping trips to London and New York, lunches served by black-tied waiters at the Regency Hotel, and a house filled with precious antiques, which she was forbidden to touch. Established in Detroit i...

The reissue of Joseph and Frances Gies’s classic bestseller on life in medieval villages.This new reissue of Life in a Medieval Village, by respected historians Joseph and Frances Gies, paints a lively, convincing portrait of rural people at work and at play in the Middle Ages. Focusing on the village of Elton, in the English East Midlands, the Gieses detail the agricultural advances that made communal living possible, explain what domestic life was like for serf and lord ...

The classic Civil War novel about a Southern woman who is unaware of her mixed-race heritage until she is sold into slavery by her uncle.The beautiful, refined daughter of a wealthy Mississippi planter and slaveholder, Iola Leroy leads a privileged life and attends school in the North. But a family tragedy leads to a stunning revelation: Iola is half Black. She is sold off into slavery and sent away from her family.Eventually freed by the Union army, Iola emb...

Free Black woman, poet, novelist, essayist, speaker, and activist, Frances Watkins Harper was one of the nineteenth century’s most important advocates of Abolitionism and female suffrage, and her pioneering work still has profound lessons for us today.In this new book, Utz McKnight shows how Harper’s life and work inspired her contemporaries to imagine a better America. He seeks to recover her importance by examining not only her vision of the possibilities of Emancipation, but als...

A fine exclusive edition of one of literature’s most beloved stories. Featuring a laser-cut jacket on a textured book with foil stamping, all titles in this series will be first editions. No more than 10,000 copies will be printed, and each will be individually numbered from 1 to 10,000."I wish the spring was here now," said Mary. "I want to see all the things that grow in England.”When orphaned Mary Lennox comes to live at her uncle's great house,...