Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World - Softcover

McKinley, Catherine E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1608195880 ISBN 13: 9781608195886

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2012

Synopsis

Brimming with rich, electrifying tales of the precious dye and its ancient heritage, Indigo is also the story of a personal quest: Catherine McKinley is the descendant of a clan of Scots who wore indigo tartan; Jewish "rag traders"; a Massachusetts textile factory owner; and African slaves-her ancestors were traded along the same Saharan routes as indigo, where a length of blue cotton could purchase human life. McKinley's journey in search of beauty and her own history leads her to the West African women who dye, trade, and wear indigo-women who unwittingly teach her that buried deep in the folds of their cloths is all of destiny and the human story.

About this title

About the Author:

Catherine E. McKinley is the author of The Book of Sarahs. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she has taught creative nonfiction, and a former Fulbright Scholar in Ghana, West Africa. She lives in New York City.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this memoir of longing, community, and personal maturation, McKinley (The Book of Sarahs), half African-American by birth, adopted and raised by white parents who were plant devotees, seeks her roots through the intertwined European and African history of the once rare indigo. A plant dye long prized for its deep blue color, indigo became a staple of trade from Africa across the Mediterranean and Europe; indigo and the fabric dyed from it evoke stories of slavery (past and present), global trade, and entrenched cultural traditions. McKinley's journey to the source of indigo leads her unexpectedly to politically unstable areas like the Ivory Coast, as well as to Ghana, Mali, and other African countries, where she is welcomed. McKinley's passion for the rare blue dye—created from ash, urine, and leaves, and used to painstakingly imprint storytelling designs—leads to intense friendships and an introduction to the complexity of social and economic status in a continent so far removed from the woman who inspired McKinley's journey—her grandmother—a questioning, tartan-clad woman in a rich blue coat. Photo insert; map. (June)

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1608195880
• ISBN 13: 9781608195886
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256