Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years and Slave, and Four Years in the White House

Keckley, Elizabeth

ISBN 10: 1434441946 / ISBN 13: 9781434441942

Published by Wildside Press, LLC, 2013

About this Item

Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.

Seller Inventory # 15302703-6

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years and Slave, and Four Years in the White House
• Publisher: Wildside Press, LLC
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1434441946
• ISBN 13: 9781434441942
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Good
• Weight: 0.602 pounds

About this title

Synopsis

An autobiographical narrative, BEHIND THE SCENES traces Elizabeth Keckley's life from her enslavement in Virginia and North Carolina to her time as seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln in the White House during Abraham Lincoln's administration. It was quite controversial at the time of its release--an uncompromising work that transgressed Victorian boundaries between public and private life, and lines of race, gender, and society.

From the Back Cover

Only a few years later, however, that relationship was in ruins, when this 1868 book created a scandal. Intended by Keckley to rehabilitate the reputation of the former First Lady--who had run up extensive debts on clothing and other luxuries while in the White House, and found herself unable to repay them after the President's assassination--the book was perceived instead as a betrayal of friendship.

Perhaps one of the first examples of celebrity gossip publishing gone awry, Behind the Scenes does, nevertheless, offer an insider perspective on the Lincoln White House that will intrigue armchair historians and fans of biography alike.