Like an increasing number of historians, Hayter-Menzies describes slavery in the North as a parallel and variation of southern slavery. But he is able to examine the history through the lens of his beloved grandmother, who grew up in the shadow of post-slavery culture, and embodied both a deep humanity and an unconscious conformity to traditional white attitudes. In this memoir of his journey through the past and the present, through his own memories and impressions of early childhood to his mature understanding of the complex legacies of slavery across American culture, Hayter-Menzies makes a remarkable departure from his past work, and achieves a memorable contribution to a literature of growing importance.
About the author...
Biographer Grant Hayter-Menzies specializes in lives unique and unexamined --both human and animal. His most recent book is Woo, the Monkey Who Inspired Emily Carr: A Biography (Douglas & McIntyre, 2019). He is also the author of Dorothy Brooke and the Fight to Save Cairo's Lost Horses (Potomac, 2017 and Allen & Unwin, 2018), the first biography of the Englishwoman who in 1930s Egypt discovered and saved thousands of elderly and abused warhorses, mules and donkeys abandoned by British forces at the termination of WWI; Mrs. Ziegfeld: The Public and Private Lives of Billie Burke (McFarland, 2016), a biography of the beloved Wizard of Oz actress; From Stray Dog to World War I Hero (University of Nebraska, 2015), the story of the legendary terrier, Rags, remembered as a battlefield messenger in World War I; Lillian Carter: A Compassionate Life (McFarland, 2014), a biography of the mother of President Jimmy Carter; Shadow Woman: The Extraordinary Career of Pauline Benton (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013), a study of the performer and champion of the art of shadow puppetry; The Empress and Mrs. Conger: The Uncommon Friendship of Two Women and Two Worlds (University of Hong Kong, 2011), an exploration of the relationship between the Dowager Empress Cixi and Sarah Conger; Imperial Masquerade: The Legend of Princess Der Ling (University of Hong Kong, 2008), a biography of the Manchu court attendant in the last years of the Qing dynasty.
See Grant's interview about The North Door with Antiques and Arts Weekly here. See more on Grant's work at his website. You can see him talk on C-SPAN about his work on Lillian Carter's biography here.
Grant lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
-- photo by Dave Traynor
-- photo by
About the foreword author...
Lora-Ellen McKinney has always been an artist skilled at turning lines of dialogue into dances, poetry, and stories. Dr. Lora-Ellen McKinney is a writer turned dancer turned child psychologist turned hospital administrator turned health policy analyst turned writer. Becoming a psychologist combined her creative passions and parental expectations for service to others. Healing children fulfilled her community and spiritual commitments. Writing allows her to make gifts to others of characters, poetry and perspectives. And it keeps her head quiet.
Dr. McKinney received an A.B. from Vassar College, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Seattle's University of Washington, and a Master's degree in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Lora-Ellen was recognized for the Kellogg Leadership Fellowship Program when she began the Clearinghouse for Drug Exposed Children at UCSF Medical School; this program was later used as the model for those begun by federal health and education departments. She later became a Salzburg Seminar Fellow selected to design conflict resolution strategies for the Balkans, Israel and Palestine. Lora-Ellen worked in health policy for hospitals and think tanks in the nation's capital. She has been recognized by Seattle-area organizations for contributions to social justice, race relations, the arts and compassion efforts.
Again a writer, her books about African American faith and practice have won awards. McKinney now applies clinical, policy, faith and political experience to fiction about children who learn to heal themselves and adults who slay dragons. Creative components of her unsold television scripts have won recognition from national script contests. She was granted an artist's award by the Richard Hugo House in Seattle to create a limited run one-woman show. Lora-Ellen knits, cooks delicious gourmet gluten-free vegan meals, bursts into songs from well-known and obscure musicals, practices guitar and piano, and spends a finger-wrinkling amount of time in swimming pools. Lora-Ellen lives on the Cedar River south of Seattle on which she daily walks and occasionally dances with her charming dog, Scout.
About the afterword author...
Daryl D'Angelo is a wife and mother, photographer and writer, and lives in a small town in southern New Hampshire. Her authorized websites for display of her art are https://www.galleria-dangelo.com/ and
-- Daryl D'Angelo's "Wooden Bench," used with permission of the artist
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Suzanne Korn in the field researching an early paint-decorated wall by Rufus Porter (1792-1884). |
About the cover artist... Suzanne Carroll Korn has been researching, studying, and writing about 19th century (1800—1860) painted-decorated plasterwalls for over 20 years. Her research has taken her to every corner of New England in order to view and document some of the few remaining original works of the itinerant painters like Rufus Porter, Jonathan D. Poor and Moses Eaton. Suzanne's research has been published in The Decorator, a publication of the Historical Society of Early American Decoration, and her study of early muraled and stenciled walls continues today under the auspices of The Center for Painted Wall Preservation, where Suzanne serves on the Board of Advisors. Historic paint-decorated walls are her inspiration! As an Early American Painter and Folk Artist, Suzanne borrows and blends the folk art motifs and early American designs found on these walls to create colorful scenic landscapes reminiscent of rural life in 19th century New England. Suzanne says,"Each painting pays tribute to life in the small colonial villages and coastal towns of England."
Suzanne's portfolio also includes a "rustic-modern" style featuring minimal landscapes and a light color palette. Small cottages, fields of flowers, and sometimes hints of distant saltmarshes gives these paintings a peaceful spirit. "I love creating simple vignettes of rural American life. These inviting rural scenes are a lovely antidote to the hustle and bustle of 21st century suburbia."
Suzanne sells her artwork through her website and at an antiques and collectibles shop in Wilton, New Hampshire. Much of her time is spent in her studio working on commissions for custom landscapes and folk art house portraits. Suzanne makes her home in the town of North Reading, Massachusetts with her husband, Rich, and canine sidekick, Alice.
Follow Suzanne's work at her websites, www.earlyamericanpainter.com , and www.vintage-stenciling.com.
Grant Hayter-Menzies, Rev. Samuel B. McKinney, Sean William Menzies, Lora-Ellen McKinney (with Scout)
