The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley

David Waldstreicher has done something truly magical in this deeply historical, deeply literary biography of Phillis Wheatley. He has recovered her poetical voice (and a treasure trove of her long-forgotten anonymous poems) within the complex world of eighteenth-century slavery and revolution. Anyone who wishes to understand Wheatley and her unique insights into why slavery dominated America's revolutionary thinking must read this thoughtful, incredibly smart, eye-opening book. --Nancy Isenberg, author of White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America and Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr In David Waldstreicher's telling, the Greek and Roman classics--the pride of the American founders--never spoke more clearly than to the Black poet Phillis Wheatley. And why not? War, peril on the high seas, kidnappings: she had seen them all and lived them all. Here is Wheatley's dramatic life and subtle voice, richly rendered; As I read, I'd never felt closer to her. --Woody Holton, author of Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution This remarkable book connects the age of revolution and the worlds of Atlantic slavery not just through impressive historical research but through deft attention to Phillis Wheatley's oft-disdained poetry. Her ostensibly stiff Augustan verses make the connection. Heroic couplets indeed! --Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, author of A House Full of Females and A Midwife's Tale David Waldstreicher's biography of Phillis Wheatley is essential reading about a poet known so well by her name, and yet so little known by the facts, motivations, and nuances of her extraordinary life and her art. As Waldstreicher beautifully states in this turn-pager: 'she's Homer and Odysseus and the slaves and the women they knew or imagined.' The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley is a must-read about one of America's most remarkable and least understood poets. This is not only the story of a remarkable revolutionary poet; it is also--amid its triumphs and tragedies--an American saga. --Rowan Ricardo Phillips, author of Living Weapon and When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness