New Biography of Fugitive Slave by Noted Professor Jean Fagan Yellin Attracts National Attention

Professor Emerita Jean Fagan Yellin's new biography of the fugitive slave Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Jacobs: A Life (Basic Civitas Books), is drawing attention to the $100,000 Ford Foundation grant Yellin recently received to edit Jacobs' papers.

• Read the TIME magazine article >>
  "Of all the women who endured slavery in this country, only one wrote a book-length account of her life. Her name was Harriet Jacobs, and her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, has one of the more satisfyingly tart closing lines in American literature."
• Read the Pace Press article >>
  "Kate Culkin, the associate editor of the Harriet Jacobs Papers, describes the project as outstanding and hopes that it will 'open up people's minds to do research.' She would like to incorporate more study of the Harriet Jacobs Papers into high school and college courses."
• Read more about Harriet Jacobs' autobiography >>
  Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself, Harriet Jacobs' autobiography, was published by Harvard University Press in a new edition edited by Professor Yellin."This enlarged edition of the most significant and celebrated slave narrative now completes the Jacobs family saga, surely one of the most memorable in all of American history."
• Read the Pace press release >>
• Visit the Harriet Jacobs Papers Web site >>
• Read the Times-Picayune article >>
  "Black History Month marks the debuts of fine new biographies of Harriet Jacobs and Harriet Tubman, one-time slaves who changed their world. . . "
• Read the Kirkus Reviews write-up >>
  "Yellin's fine reconstruction of an impressive personality should firmly embed Jacobs in American cultural history."
• Read The Journal News article >>
  "'Jean Yellin's rigorous scholarship has helped change the perceptions of entire generations,' said Pace President David A. Caputo."
• Read the article on the Jacobs Papers project in Humanities, the magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities >>
• Read The Philadelphia Inquirer review of Harriet Jacobs: A Life >>
  Yellin's fine reconstruction of an impressive personality should firmly embed Jacobs in American cultural history. (16-page b&w photo insert, not seen)

• Listen to The Remarkable Life of Slave, Author Harriet Jacobs on NPR >>
  Jean Fagan Yellin, distinguished professor emerita at Pace University, shares the story of Harriet Jacobs, as told in her book Harriet Jacobs, A Life.