 | Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage Subjects: Wheatley Phillis 1753–1784; African American women poets -- Biography; Poets American -- Colonial period ca. 1600–1775 -- Biography; Slaves -- United States -- Biography; In this first full-length biography of "the mother of African-American literature," Carretta (Equiano, the African) offers a thoroughly readable, fully scholarly life of Wheatley (c. 1761-1784). Precise data about the roughly seven-year-old child, born in Senegal and transported into slavery in Massachusetts, who became a "pioneer of American and African literature," is hard to come by, but this is a satisfying study of the "elusive" Wheatley, fleshed out with succinct, discerning readings of the body of her work, from a recently discovered poem composed when she was about 11 to her last known work. Carretta unveils the truly remarkable figure Wheatley was, as a highly literate, woman in colonial America, and, through a detailed assessment of her revisions and her correspondence, as the highly conscious poet she became. Especially noteworthy is the book's attentiveness to Wheatley's involvement in the production and promotion of her book, the contemporary responses to her work, and an unprecedented account of her marriage to the debt-ridden John Peters, whose death forced her into domestic service. That some of Carretta's analyses and conjectures may spark debate only adds to the liveliness of his worthy, welcome biography. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. VINCENT CARRETTA is professor emeritus of English at the University of Maryland. He is the author or editor of more than ten books, including scholarly editions of the writings of Olaudah Equiano, Phillis Wheatley Peters, Ignatius Sancho, and Ottobah Cugoano. His books include Phillis Wheatley Peters: Biography of a Genius in Bondage; Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man; and The Life and Letters of Philip Quaque, the First African Anglican Missionary , coedited with Ty M. Reese (all Georgia). He lives in Springfield, Virginia. |
