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Julius Lester (1939–2018)

Forfatter af To Be a Slave

54+ Works 9,370 Members 478 Reviews 5 Favorited

Om forfatteren

Julius Bernard Lester was born in St. Louis, Missouri on January 27, 1939. He received a bachelor's degree in English from Fisk University in 1960. He moved to New York to become a folk singer. He performed on the coffeehouse circuit as a singer and guitarist. He released two albums entitled Julius vis mere Lester in 1965 and Departures in 1967. His first published book, The Folksinger's Guide to the 12-String Guitar as Played by Leadbelly written with Pete Seeger, was published in 1965. In the 1960s, Lester was closely involved as a writer and photographer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He traveled to the South to document the civil rights movement and to North Vietnam to photograph the effects of American bombardment. He also hosted radio and television talk shows in New York City. He wrote more than four dozen nonfiction and fiction books for adults and children. His books for adults included Look Out, Whitey!: Black Power's Gon' Get Your Mama, Revolutionary Notes, All Is Well, Lovesong: Becoming a Jew, and The Autobiography of God. His children's books included To Be a Slave, Sam and the Tigers, and Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue, which won the American Library Association's Coretta Scott King Award in 2006. He also wrote reviews and essays for numerous publications including The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe, The Village Voice, Dissent, The New Republic, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. After teaching for two years at the New School for Social Research in New York, Lester joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1971. He originally taught in the Afro-American studies department, but transferred to the Judaic and Near Eastern studies department when Lester criticized the novelist James Baldwin for what he felt were anti-Semitic remarks. He died from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on January 18, 2018 at the age of 78. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre
Image credit: Courtesy of Julius Lester

Serier

Værker af Julius Lester

To Be a Slave (1968) 1,580 eksemplarer
John Henry (1994) 1,496 eksemplarer
Day of Tears (2005) 799 eksemplarer
Let's Talk About Race (2005) 530 eksemplarer
From Slave Ship to Freedom Road (1998) — Forfatter — 279 eksemplarer
Black Cowboy, Wild Horses (1998) 261 eksemplarer
When Dad Killed Mom (2001) 210 eksemplarer
Long Journey Home (1972) 200 eksemplarer
Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales (1999) 181 eksemplarer
Cupid: A Tale of Love and Desire (2007) 164 eksemplarer
Lovesong: Becoming a Jew (1605) 157 eksemplarer
Othello [adapted] (1995) 148 eksemplarer
The Old African (2005) 126 eksemplarer
Guardian (2008) 125 eksemplarer
What A Truly Cool World (1999) 119 eksemplarer
Black Folktales (1969) 111 eksemplarer
More Tales of Uncle Remus: Volume 1 (1988) 101 eksemplarer
The Knee-high Man and Other Tales (1972) 94 eksemplarer
Last Tales of Uncle Remus (1994) 91 eksemplarer
This Strange New Feeling (1982) 88 eksemplarer
The Autobiography of God: A Novel (2004) 81 eksemplarer
Time's Memory (2006) 67 eksemplarer
And All OUr Wounds Forgiven (1994) 64 eksemplarer
Further Tales of Uncle Remus (1990) 57 eksemplarer
Why Heaven Is Far Away (2002) 49 eksemplarer
Revolutionary notes (1969) 45 eksemplarer
Shining (2003) 43 eksemplarer
Albidaro and the Mischievous Dream (2000) 31 eksemplarer
The Hungry Ghosts (2009) 28 eksemplarer
Do Lord Remember Me: A Novel (1985) 25 eksemplarer
Falling Pieces of the Broken Sky (1990) 16 eksemplarer
The Girl Who Saved Yesterday (2016) 13 eksemplarer
Basketball Game (New Windmills) (1977) 10 eksemplarer
Who I am (1974) 9 eksemplarer
All is well (1976) 9 eksemplarer
The Seventh Son (v. 2) (1986) — Redaktør — 7 eksemplarer
The Seventh Son: Volume One Only (1986) — Redaktør — 6 eksemplarer
Two Love Stories (1972) 5 eksemplarer
A Taste of Freedom (Knockouts) (1983) 4 eksemplarer
City Cat, Country Cat (2010) 2 eksemplarer

Associated Works

Places I Never Meant To Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers (1999) — Bidragyder — 316 eksemplarer
Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America (1995) — Bidragyder — 91 eksemplarer
Soulscript: Afro-American Poetry (1970) — Bidragyder — 40 eksemplarer
Black Anti-Semitism and Jewish Racism (1969) — Bidragyder — 38 eksemplarer
Wonders: Writings and Drawings for the Child in Us All (1980) — Bidragyder — 18 eksemplarer
Young and Black in America (1970) — Introduktion — 16 eksemplarer

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Anmeldelser

A wonderful read out loud book. Marvelous language. This was one of my daughter's favorites.
 
Markeret
LDMichaelis | 21 andre anmeldelser | Jan 22, 2024 |
The four year old loved the stories of tricky Brer Rabbit. This mama had to do some editing, but not too much. The voice and language use is engaging and charming, especially the little asides directed to the reader. This is also wonderfully illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, and would be a great book to own, since the stories are short and can be returned to again and again.
 
Markeret
mslibrarynerd | 8 andre anmeldelser | Jan 13, 2024 |
If you are looking for primary sources on slavery, look no further. Author Julius Lester provides context for what is basically a compilation of quotations by and about slaves. Some of these are incredibly harsh, with explicit language intact. In the introduction, Lester makes an argument that younger children can handle this harsh reality and that it does in fact make them into more compassionate people who will value truth over lies. This may be too much for children under the age of 12, but it's an indispensable resource for exposing young adults to the realities of this country's past.

By chance, I read this right before the movie "Twelve Years a Slave" is due out and so I noticed that book heavily quotes Solomon Northup, on whose autobiography the movie is based.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
LibrarianDest | 11 andre anmeldelser | Jan 3, 2024 |
I'm not a big fan of audio books in general, which is weird because I love listening to stories on the radio. I suppose the difference is that when it comes to books, the experience isn't improved by bringing a third party interpreter into the picture.

Still, this was a good audio book. Great overall voice quality (rich, soothing, etc.), decent characterization (except that he gave all the females a kind of whine that sort of rubbed me the wrong way), and the book lent itself well to being told aloud (it wasn't too complicated or anything).

The book itself was okay, too. Not the most enthralling thing ever, but good for people who are interested in love, beauty, and myths. I liked how Lester made "the story" itself a kind of character in the book, too.

Just one more ridiculous thing: I have a strong preference for Greek god names over Roman ones, so that bothered me a little, too. I don't know where I picked this prejudice up, but I was surprised by the depth of my feelings on the subject.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
LibrarianDest | 18 andre anmeldelser | Jan 3, 2024 |

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Statistikker

Værker
54
Also by
8
Medlemmer
9,370
Popularitet
#2,570
Vurdering
4.0
Anmeldelser
478
ISBN
289
Sprog
6
Udvalgt
5

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