A recommended biography that offers a welcome addition to the roster of lesser-known, pioneer African-American educators.
A biography of the remarkable African-American educator William Johnson Trent (1873-1963) that gives readers a close look at the tumultuous times of his long life.
Trent was born in North Carolina in 1873 to an African-American mother, Malinda Johnson, and a white father, Edward Trent, who eventually left them. Malinda then married an African-American man named Mack Dunn; they were sharecroppers, which was a hard life. But young William showed promise, and by scrimping, they managed to start him on the path to education, which eventually led him to Livingstone College, the first black-founded and -run school of higher education in North Carolina. Trent was a stellar student and also proved himself to be a natural leader and organizer. After graduation, he put those talents to work, involving himself with the YMCA as secretary for the all-black Third North Carolina Volunteer Regiment and with the Young Men’s Institute. It quickly became apparent that if a situation was dire, involving a lack of funds or a lack of membership, Trent could solve the problem; time and again, he worked slow, patient miracles. After Reconstruction, the era of Jim Crow, Ku Klux Klan attacks, and lynchings prevailed well into the 20th century. Trent walked a fine line between dignity and despair during this time, during which he was twice widowed. Finally, in 1925, he was made president of his alma mater—an institution in financial straits that was saved, eventually, by his strong hand. In these difficult times, the story of a well-lived, selfless life like William Johnson Trent’s provides a welcome uplift. Scales-Trent, a retired academic from the State University of New York at Buffalo, is Trent’s granddaughter, and her book is clearly a labor of love. Her biography is largely well-written, as in the opening, which addresses the predicament of newly freed slaves in an epic style: “They heard the news from black people walking down the road, from Union soldiers riding by on their horses, perhaps from the slave master himself. And so they left.” That said, there are long stretches of fairly numbing detail, particularly involving financial woes. Of necessity, the author also often qualifies events with “probably” and “we can assume.” However, the book is exhaustively documented and indexed, and it also includes some period photographs.
A recommended biography that offers a welcome addition to the roster of lesser-known, pioneer African-American educators.Pub Date: Feb. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-942545-46-0
Page Count: 388
Publisher: Monroe Street Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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