William Wells Brown (Cyclopedia of World Authors)
The first African American man of letters, William Wells Brown is a representative of the earliest great age of black writing in America, from 1830 to 1860. Without having had formal schooling, Brown was a pioneer in African American writing—especially fiction, drama, history, biography, and travel literature—and one of the most widely read authors of the mid-nineteenth century. Certain of his literary techniques were followed well into the twentieth century. In the many lectures that he gave, Brown spoke of the five phases of his life: as slave, laborer, lecturer, author, and...
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