Hardcover released: February 2, 2016
Paperback released: January 24, 2017
from Alfred A. Knopf
Lillian Smith Book Award
Booklist Best Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year
A Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Award for Excellence in Nonfiction
Nominated for the National Book Award
A Washington Post Notable Book
A San Francisco Chronicle and Kirkus Best Book of the Year
Finalist for Georgia Author of the Year
American Library Association Notable Nonfiction Books List
American Library Association GLBT Roundtable’s Over the Rainbow Top Ten Title
Nominated for the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award
For interviews and media inquiries, contact:
James Meader (he/him) | Executive Director of Publicity
Vintage Books & Anchor Books
The Knopf Doubleday Group | Penguin Random House
Tel: 646-831-0209 m
jmeader@penguinrandomhouse.com
@james_meader
// About The Firebrand and the First Lady //
Patricia Bell-Scott’s groundbreaking biography—two decades in the works—tells the story of how a brilliant writer-turned-activist, who was the granddaughter of a mixed-race slave, and the first lady of the United States, whose ancestry gave her membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, forged an enduring friendship that changed each of their lives, enriched the conversation about race, and added vital fuel to the movement for human rights in America.
Pauli Murray (1910-1985) became a lawyer, civil and women’s rights pioneer, and the first African American woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest, despite the discrimination she faced because of her race, sex, and sexuality. Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), the niece of Theodore Roosevelt and the wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, became a diplomat and human rights internationalist in her own right.
Drawing on letters, journals, diaries, published and unpublished manuscripts, and interviews, Patricia Bell-Scott presents the first close-up portrait of this evolving friendship and how it was sustained over time, what each gave to the other, and how their friendship influenced the struggle for American social justice.