The Garies and Their Friends


Book Description

Originally published in London in 1857 and never before available in paperback, The Garies and Their Friends is the second novel published by an African American and the first to chronicle the experience of free blacks in the pre-Civil War northeast. The novel anticipates themes that were to become important in later African American fiction, including miscegenation and 'passing, ' and tells the story of the Garies and their friends, the Ellises, a 'highly respectable and industrious coloured family.'




The Buried Treasure


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Reproduction of the original: The Buried Treasure by Harry Castlemon







A Silvern Secret


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The Garies and Their Friends


Book Description

Unjustly overlooked in its own time, Frank J. Webb’s novel of pre-Civil War Philadelphia weaves together action, humor, and social commentary. The Garies and Their Friends tells the story of two families struggling for different sorts of respectability: the Garies, a well-to-do interracial couple who relocate to Philadelphia from the plantation South in order to legalize their marriage, and their friends the Ellises, free black Philadelphians hoping to make the move from the working class into the bourgeoisie. Along the way the families confront racialized violence, melodramatic villainy, and sentimental reversals. Entertaining and fast-moving, the novel has a Dickensian mix of uncanny coincidence and interwoven personal experiences. The historical documents accompanying this Broadview Edition provide reviews of the novel along with extensive materials on slavery, the color line, and contemporary Philadelphia.




Our Gohman Story


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This book shares the stories of 65 Gohman ancestors who grew up next to the Mississippi River in Central Minnesota. They are the third-generation members of the Gohman family that immigrated from Lower Saxony, Germany, to the United States in 1843 and migrated from Cincinnati to Minnesota in 1855. The first and second generations are introduced briefly. The lives of the Third-Generation spanned a period from 1868 to 1991, an amazing 123 years. Generally engaged as farmers, they were diverse personalities who responded to life experiences in diverse ways. They lived through times of both great prosperity and deep poverty. They experienced two world wars and dramatically changing technology. This generation of the Gohman family thrived as they adapted to the changes in their lives from the horse and buggy times to the days of the jet plane.




Old Court


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Mississippi Writers


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Drama recounting the experience of growing up in the Deep South







To Set Before a Queen


Book Description

Alma McKee, cook to both Her Majesty the Queen and the late Queen Mother, was working for the Queen and Prince Philip at Clarence House at the time of the Accession. Mrs McKee recounts that when the Queen moved to Buckingham Palace she asked her to write down a selection of her recipes: the origins of this book. Mrs McKee, a Swede by birth, had trained as a young girl at Horningshom Castle in Sweden. She came to work in England in the period between the First and Second World Wars, and married the Scotsman, Jimmy McKee, who was himself a butler. Here is a unique collection of recipes with a Scandinavian flavour that vividly evoke life upstairs and downstairs in the royal households, full of anecdote and sharp insights into a hidden world. This is an era when at Court the lingering majesty of Empire was still mingled with post-war austerity, though already the first glimpses of a new Britain and a new social order with very different values are to be seen. When working for ex-King Peter and Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, Mrs McKee had made her name with her resourceful and economical cooking, constrained by wartime rationing and the relative poverty of her employers. At Clarence House, with the resources of the royal estates at her disposal for the supply of cream, game, poultry and vegetables, she was to cook meals enjoyed by most of the crowned heads of Europe, politicians and a host of distinguished guests. Her recipes are spiced with her tales of the great and famous and of the not so famous - from Prince Charles' childhood passion for Swedish meatballs to large policemen sheltering in her kitchen from persecution by the royal corgis. Mrs McKee reveals the secrets of a royal cook, from simple tips to menu planning. Her matter-of-fact approach and sensible presentation of cooking in a grand manner, offer us all the opportunity to share in the style enjoyed by the Queen and the Royal Family. With this book we can all create a dinner party to set before a Queen. Maureen Owen, a London journalist covering royal affairs at the time of the Accession and Coronation, was also a fashion reporter on the News Chronicle. After chance meeting, she was to become a life-long friend of Mrs McKee, and a frequent visitor to the royal households. She worked with Mrs McKee on her recipe books, and has now brought all Mrs McKee's recipes and anecdotes together in one volume.