In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel Delany: Vol 1 1957-1969
The Secret World: A History of Intelligence by Christopher Andrew
Critical Mass: Four Decades of Essays, Reviews, Hand Grenades, and Hurrahs by James Wolcott
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight- Went back to the beginning. I always suspected, of course, the Douglass exaggerated things here and there in his three autobiographies and Blight does a very close reading of all three texts. For example, even though I have read a number of slave narratives (and all three of Douglass’s) I had never noticed that in male-written slave narratives, the missing mother is a recurring motif (and with good reason)...Douglass was simply a great writer, period. I had also forgotten just how much beauty and even something resembling friendship that the very young Douglass observed and remembered as well as all of the slavery horrors that he witnessed; perhaps The Narrative, in a way.
Did some looking into Wye House, the plantation that Douglass lived on from the ages of 7-9 and that he immortalized in The Narrative. Extensive archaeological digs have been done at Wye House that showed that Douglass remembered the place quite well.
Douglass’s memories of the place were one of the deepest roots of his evolving identity, and eventually of his abolitionism. His rich descriptions of the “Great House Farm” depict a world of both absurdity and joy, of heroic human striving and of inhumane exploitation and violence. It had a marvel of a windmill to fan a child’s imagination, as well as too many frustrated and depraved adults of both races wielding whips with impunity.
I broke down over the weekend and got a subscription to The New Yorker, in part, because I wanted to ramble through the archives from the comfort of my home...I love reading author interviews and Deborah Treisman’s interview with Japanese author Haruki Murakami was nice...and while I didn’t get through any of the Wolcott book, I did read Wolcott’s review of a biography of Saul Bellow