Description
A black child born in the twilight of slavery, William Henry Ellis inhabited a world of fraught, ambiguous racial categories on the anarchic border between the United States and Mexico. He adopted the name Guillermo Enrique Eliseo and passed as a Mexican. A shrewd businessman, he became fabulously wealthy and found himself involved in scandalous trials, unexpected disappearances and diplomatic controversies. Constantly switching identities, Eliseo identified and exploited the porousness of the colour line and the border line.
In The Strange Career of William Ellis, Karl Jacoby presents an intriguing narrative set in a secret and ever-changing world-that of Reconstruction American.
About the Author
Karl Jacoby is a professor of history at Columbia University. The author of two previous books, he has won the Albert J. Beveridge Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among many other honors. He lives in New York.
Reviews
"Jacoby...[is] a smart and eloquent writer..." -- Literary Review
Awards
Winner of Phillis Wheatley Book Award 2017 and Organization of American Historians Ray Allen Billington Prize 2017.
Book Information
ISBN 9780393239256
Author Karl Jacoby
Format Hardback
Page Count 336
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 625g
Dimensions(mm) 244mm * 165mm * 30mm
