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Julius Lester (1939–2018)

Autor(a) de To Be a Slave

54+ Works 9,370 Membros 478 Críticas 5 Favorited

About the Author

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 mostrar mais 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) mostrar menos
Image credit: Courtesy of Julius Lester

Séries

Obras por Julius Lester

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

Associated Works

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

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Críticas

A wonderful read out loud book. Marvelous language. This was one of my daughter's favorites.
 
Assinalado
LDMichaelis | 21 outras críticas | 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.
 
Assinalado
mslibrarynerd | 8 outras críticas | 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.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
LibrarianDest | 11 outras críticas | 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.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
LibrarianDest | 18 outras críticas | Jan 3, 2024 |

Listas

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Estatísticas

Obras
54
Also by
8
Membros
9,370
Popularidade
#2,570
Avaliação
4.0
Críticas
478
ISBN
289
Línguas
6
Marcado como favorito
5

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