Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line (Audiobook)

from SamSattler

Historians, and history itself, have not treated Clarence King kindly. King was at one time one of the most famous and admired people in the United States but, if you are like me, you likely have never heard of the man. Born into a wealthy family in 1842, King became famous as the geologist respo...

from Jcambridge

This book deserves a much wider audience among Library Thing members. A love story, a detective story, and a tale of deception that demonstrates that truth is stranger than fiction. I am surprised it has not been adapted for a movie -- Clarence King was an important figure in American history and...

from Lukerik

“To see her walk across a room, you would think someone had tilted up a coffin on end and propelled the corpse spasmodically forward.” So not his type then. As it turns out, Clarence King would take a Cockney barmaid at a pinch, but he preferred Black women. And who can blame him? What we have h...

from NewsieQ

An unusual tale of a well-known scientist, explorer and government official leading a double life in late 19th Century New York -- passing for black to marry a woman born a slave in Georgia. Unearthing this story was no easy feat for the author, who had tried to encourage her students to tackle t...

from rivkat

Clarence King, the founder of the US Geological Service and a best-selling author, was the literally fair-haired child (also blue-eyed) of an impoverished but impeccably socially credentialed New York family. Yale-educated, he was widely considered by his set—which included people like Henry Adam...