uzie King Taylor made a remarkable journey from slavery to freedom through service with the first black Civil War regiment to fight for freedom in America's history. Written toward the end of her life, her memories are not those of a battle veteran, though she helped care for plenty of shattered bodies, heard the guns, and saw rebel soldiers at close range. At risk to her life and freedom, she served throughout the war as a teenaged nurse. Assigned as a laundress, she actually did very little laundering but instead played an important role in the care and spirits of black soldiers and their white commanders. Her depth of feeling about the past and her passionate hopes for the future bring her writing to life. This is an important contribution to American history that is made available in this volume for the first time for e-readers. Susie King Taylor (1848-1912) was an African American army nurse with the first black Union troops during the Civil War. She wrote the only memoir of an African-American woman who had experience with combat troops. She was also the first African American to teach in a school for former slaves in Georgia. There is great beauty in some of the small details of Suzie King's recollections. She briefly ponders in amazement her ability to acclimate to the horrors of war. "It seems strange how our aversion to seeing suffering is overcome in war, how we are able to see the most sickening sights, such as men with their limbs blown off and mangled by the deadly shells, without a shudder; and instead of turning away, how we hurry to assist in alleviating their pain, bind up their wounds, and press the cool water to their parched lips, with feelings only of sympathy and pity." She also writes of her delight in becoming proficient at field-stripping, cleaning, and shooting a musket. Her final chapter is an eloquent plea for civil rights and a recognition that emancipation's promise was still a distant goal. Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

The so-called New Negroes of the period between World Wars I and II embodied a new sense of racial pride and upward mobility for the race. Many of them thought that relationships between spouses could be a crucial factor in realizing this dream. But there

“I’ve got the name for our publishing operation. We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random. Let’s call it Random House.” So recounts Bennett Cerf in this wonderfully amusing memoir of the making of a great publishing house. An incomparable raconteur, possessed of an irrepressible wit and an abiding love of books and authors, Cerf brilliantly evokes the heady days of Random House’s first decades. Part of the vanguard of young New York publishers who revolutionized the book business in the 1920s and ’30s, Cerf helped usher in publishing’s golden age. Cerf was a true personality, whose other pursuits (columnist, anthologist, author, lecturer, radio host, collector of jokes and anecdotes, perennial judge of the Miss America pageant, and panelist on What’s My Line?) helped shape his reputation as a man of boundless energy and enthusiasm and brought unprecedented attention to his company and to his authors. At once a rare behind-the-scenes account of book publishing and a fascinating portrait of four decades’ worth of legendary authors, from James Joyce and William Faulkner to Ralph Ellison and Eudora Welty, At Random is a feast for bibliophiles and anyone who’s ever wondered what goes on inside a publishing house.

In Reminiscences of My Life in Camp, Susie King Taylor offers a rare and fascinating firsthand account of her experiences as a nurse and teacher with the 33rd United States Colored Troops during the American Civil War. Born into slavery in Georgia, Taylor's memoir provides valuable insights into the daily lives and struggles of African American women during this pivotal period in American history. Through her engaging and often poignant narrative, Taylor sheds light on the complex realities of race, gender, and class in the 19th century, making this book an essential read for anyone interested in the untold stories of the Civil War era.

Susie King Taylor, born a slave in 1848, would learn to read at secret schools and go on to teach countless others to read and write. Follow the course of the Civil War in her own words as she remembers her work as a nurse and teacher with African-American soldiers.

In this debut memoir, a James Beard Award–winning writer, whose childhood idea of fine dining was Howard Johnson’s, tells how he became one of Paris’s most influential food critics Until Alec Lobrano landed a job in the glamorous Paris office of Women’s Wear Daily, his main experience of French cuisine was the occasional supermarket éclair. An interview with the owner of a renowned cheese shop for his first article nearly proves a disaster because he speaks no French. As he goes on to cover celebrities and couturiers and improves his mastery of the language, he gradually learns what it means to be truly French. He attends a cocktail party with Yves St. Laurent and has dinner with Giorgio Armani. Over a superb lunch, it’s his landlady who ultimately provides him with a lasting touchstone for how to judge food: “you must understand the intentions of the cook.” At the city’s brasseries and bistros, he discovers real French cooking. Through a series of vivid encounters with culinary figures from Paul Bocuse to Julia Child to Ruth Reichl, Lobrano hones his palate and finds his voice. Soon the timid boy from Connecticut is at the epicenter of the Parisian dining revolution and the restaurant critic of one of the largest newspapers in the France. A mouthwatering testament to the healing power of food, My Place at the Table is a moving coming-of-age story of how a gay man emerges from a wounding childhood, discovers himself, and finds love. Published here for the first time is Lobrano’s “little black book,” an insider’s guide to his thirty all-time-favorite Paris restaurants.

This remarkable journal of an enlisted Federal soldier provides an abundance of fresh information on camp life, battles, picket duty, skirmishing and, ultimately, life in a Confederate prison. It includes descriptions of service with the IX Army Corps.

Excerpts from the diary of a woman who served as nurse to a regiment of black soldiers fighting for the Union during the Civil War, including her observations on the treatment of "coloreds" after the war.

This unique account of the life of Charles Follen--German nationalist and revolutionary, Harvard professor, Unitarian minister, and abolitionist--opens a window on several worlds during the first half of the nineteenth century.