{"title":"Phillis Wheatley","description":"\u003cp\u003ePhillis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784) was born in West Africa and transported to Boston as a slave child. Purchased by the Wheatley family, she received an exceptional education and began composing poetry as a teenager. In 1773 she became the first African American and one of the first American women to publish a book of poetry, \u003cem\u003ePoems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral\u003c\/em\u003e (Archibald Bell, London, 1773). Her work is grounded in neoclassical forms and themes of religious devotion, but also engages questions of freedom and the African experience. She was manumitted after the publication of her book. She met with George Washington in 1776. Her work remained largely forgotten until its scholarly recovery in the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"complete-writings","title":"Complete Writings","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe extraordinary writings of Phillis Wheatley, a formerly enslaved woman turned published poet \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1761, a young girl arrived in Boston on a ship of enslaved people, was sold to the Wheatley family, and given the name Phillis Wheatley. After studying English and classical literature, geography, the Bible, and Latin, Phillis published her first poem in 1767 at the age of 14, winning much public attention and considerable fame. When Boston publishers who doubted its authenticity rejected an initial collection of her poetry, Wheatley sailed to London in 1773 and found a publisher there for \u003ci\u003ePoems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis volume collects both Wheatley's letters and her poetry: hymns, elegies, translations, philosophical poems, tales, and epyllions--including a poignant plea to the Earl of Dartmouth urging freedom for America and comparing the country's condition to her own. With her contemplative elegies and her use of the poetic imagination to escape an unsatisfactory world, Wheatley anticipated the Romantic Movement of the following century. The appendices to this edition include poems of Wheatley's contemporary African-American poets: Lucy Terry, Jupiter Harmon, and Francis Williams. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.","brand":"Phillis Wheatley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44080576856106,"sku":"9780140424300","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/complete-writings-1793264.jpg?v=1771407126"},{"product_id":"phillis-wheatley-poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral-and-a-memoir-of-phillis-wheatley-a-native-african-and-a-slave","title":"Phillis Wheatley: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral and A Memoir of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1773, \u003cem\u003ePoems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral \u003c\/em\u003ebecame the first book of poetry by an African-American author to be published. At the tender age of seven, Phillis had been brought to Massachusetts as a slave and sold to the well-to-do Wheatley family. There, she threw herself into education, and soon she was devouring the classics and writing verse with whatever she had to hand - odes in chalk on the walls of the house. Once her talent became known, there was uproar, and in 1772 she was interrogated by a panel of 'the most respectable characters in Boston' and forced to defend the ownership of her own words, since many believed that it was an impossible that she, an African-American slave, could write poetry of such high quality.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs related in the 1834 memoir by an outspoken proponent of antislavery, B.B. Thatcher, also included in this volume, the road to publication was not straight, and while it became clear that such a volume could not be published in America at the time, Phillis was recommended to a London publisher, who brought out the book - albeit with an attestation as to her authorship, as well as a 'letter from her master' and a short preface asking the reader's indulgence. This edition includes the attestation, the 'letter from her master' and notes from the original publishers as an appendix, so that the twenty-first-century reader can discover Phillis Wheatley as she should have been read - as a poet, not property.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Phillis Wheatley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44080576921642,"sku":"9781804470008","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/phillis-wheatley-poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral-and-a-memoir-of-phillis-wheatley-a-native-african-and-a-slave-7945312.jpg?v=1771407126"},{"product_id":"the-poems-of-phillis-wheatley-as-they-were-originally-published-in-london-1773-1909","title":"The Poems Of Phillis Wheatley, As They Were Originally Published In London, 1773 (1909)","description":"This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.","brand":"Phillis Wheatley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44080576987178,"sku":"9781169032453","price":27.16,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/the-poems-of-phillis-wheatley-as-they-were-originally-published-in-london-1773-1909-1648128.jpg?v=1771407126"},{"product_id":"poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral","title":"Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral","description":"\u003cp\u003eBorn in West Africa in approximately 1753, Wheatley was sold into slavery as a child and transported to the American colonies in 1761. She was bought by a wealthy Boston merchant named John Wheatley to serve as a servant to his family. They gave the young girl the name Phillis, after the ship that had transported her to America. The Wheatley family soon recognized her amazing intellect and talent and started giving her an education very unusual for a slave at that time. Wheatley was taught Greek, Latin, classic literature, and the Bible and began writing poetry at age 14. In 1773, when she was 20 years-old, Wheatley traveled to London with her owner's son and it was there that she published her first collection of poems, \"Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral\". Her work was an instant success and the Wheatley family subsequently freed her from slavery. Wheatley's work reflects her African heritage, religious faith, and her classical education. Her elegant and contemplative odes and elegies are some of the most beautiful poems in early American literature. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Phillis Wheatley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44080577052714,"sku":"9781420970906","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral-6552620.jpg?v=1771407126"},{"product_id":"poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral-1","title":"Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral","description":"WE whose Names are under-written, do assure the World, that the POEMS specified in the following Page, were (as we verily believe) written by Phillis, a young Negro Girl, who was but a few Years since, brought an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa... -from the publisher's affidavit Probably the first Black American writer, Phillis Wheatley had to travel to England to see her work published in this 1773 volume, the first collection of poetry by an African America to see print. Her work, considered even at the time sentimental and derivative, was harshly criticized by many, including Thomas Jefferson, and the novelty of its author soon waned to the point that the emancipated Wheatley died in poverty and obscurity. But as one of the earliest firsthand accounts of the slavery in America, it is an important document of life in the colonial era: Some view our sable race with scornful eye, \"Their colour is a diabolic die.\" Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train. (from \" On being brought from Africa to America\") PHILLIS WHEATLEY (c.1753-1784) was captured at the age of around seven and brought to America in 1761, where she became a house slave-and near adopted daughter-of Boston merchant John Wheatley. Demonstrating a talent for languages, she was educated alongside the Wheatley children. After being granted her freedom, she married John Peters, a free Black Bostonian.","brand":"Phillis Wheatley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44080577118250,"sku":"9781596052888","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/poems-on-various-subjects-religious-and-moral-5827248.jpg?v=1771407126"},{"product_id":"the-collected-works-of-phillis-wheatley-revised","title":"The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley (Revised)","description":"The past two decades have seen a dramatic resurgence of interest in black women writers, as authors such as Alice Walker and Toni Morrison have come to dominate the larger Afro-American literary landscape. Yet the works of the writers who founded and nurtured the black women's literary tradition--nineteenth-century Afro-American women--have remained buried in research libraries or in expensive hard-to-find reprints, often inaccessible to twentieth-century readers.\u003cbr\u003e Oxford University Press, in collaboration with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a research unit of The New York Public Library, rescued the voice of an entire segment of the black tradition by offering thirty volumes of these compelling and rare works of fiction, poetry, autobiography, biography, essays, and journalism. Responding to the wide recognition this series has received, Oxford now presents four of these volumes in paperback. Each book contains an introduction written by an expert in the field, as well as an overview by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the General Editor.\u003cbr\u003e Individually, each of these four works now in paperback--including \u003cem\u003eThe Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimké\u003c\/em\u003e, Elizabeth Keckley's \u003cem\u003eBehind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSix Women's Slave Narratives\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eThe Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley\u003c\/em\u003e--stands as a unique literary contribution in its own right. Collectively providing a rich sampling of the range of works written by black women over the course of more than a century, they pay tribute (now long overdue) to an extraordinary and influential group of Afro-American women. These new editions will enable teachers, students, and general readers of American literature, history, Afro-American culture, and women's studies to hear at last, and learn from, the lost voice of the nineteenth-century black woman writer.","brand":"Phillis Wheatley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44080577183786,"sku":"9780195060850","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/the-collected-works-of-phillis-wheatley-revised-2960029.jpg?v=1771407126"}],"url":"https:\/\/thepoetryshop.com\/collections\/phillis-wheatley.oembed","provider":"The Poetry Shop LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}