Bibliograph

Passing strange, a Gilded Age tale of love and deception across the color line, Martha A. Sandweiss

Type

Label

Passing strange, a Gilded Age tale of love and deception across the color line, Martha A. Sandweiss

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages [313]-358) and index

resource.biographical

contains biographical information

Illustrations

platesillustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Passing strange

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

233549201

Responsibility statement

Martha A. Sandweiss

Sub title

a Gilded Age tale of love and deception across the color line

Summary

Clarence King is a hero of nineteenth-century western history. Brilliant scientist and witty conversationalist, bestselling author and architect of the great surveys that mapped the West after the Civil War, King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent Newport family: for thirteen years he lived a double life--as the celebrated white Clarence King and as a black Pullman porter and steelworker. Unable to marry the black woman he loved, the fair-haired, blue-eyed King passed as a Negro, revealing his secret to his wife Ada only on his deathbed. Historian Martha Sandweiss is the first writer to uncover the life that King tried so hard to conceal. She reveals the complexity of a man who, while publicly espousing a personal dream of a uniquely American amalgam of white and black, hid his love for his wife and their five biracial children.--From publisher description

Table Of Contents

An invented life -- Clarence King and Ada Copeland -- Becoming Clarence King -- King of the West -- Becoming Ada Copeland -- King of the city -- James and Ada Todd -- New beginnings -- Family lives -- Breakdowns -- Endings -- Ada King -- On her own -- The trial -- Secrets

Classification