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The Life and Legend of the Slave Potter Dave
W. W. Norton
November 2008
On Sale: October 20, 2008
320 pages
ISBN: 0393058565
EAN: 9780393058567
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The compelling story of a slave, owned by the author's
ancestors, who became one of the singular artists of the
nineteenth century. He is known today, as he was then, only as Dave. His pots
and storage jars were everyday items, but because of their
beauty and massive size, and because Dave signed and
inscribed many with poems, they now fetch six figures at
auction. We know of no other slave artist who dared to put
his name on his work, a dangerous advertisement of literacy. Fascinated by the man and by this troubling family history,
Leonard Todd moved from Manhattan to Edgefield, South
Carolina, where his ancestors had established a thriving
pottery industry in the early 1800s. Todd studied each of
Dave's poems for biographical clues, which he pieced
together with local records and family letters to create
this moving and dramatic chronicle of Dave's life—a story
of creative triumph in the midst of slavery. Many of Dave's
astounding jars are found now in America's finest museums.
8 pages of color; 31 black-and-white illustrations.
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