Behind the Scenes: or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House (Penguin Classics)

Originally published in 1868—when it was attacked as an “indecent book” authored by a “traitorous eavesdropper”— Behind the Scenes is the story of Elizabeth Keckley, who began her life as a slave and became a privileged witness to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Keckley bought her freedom at the age of thirty-seven and set up a successful dressmaking business in Washington, D.C. She became modiste to Mary Todd Lincoln and in time her friend and confidante, a relationship that continued after Lincoln’s assassination. In documenting that friendship—often using the First Lady’s own letters— Behind the Scenes fuses the slave narrative with the political memoir. It remains extraordinary for its poignancy, candor, and historical perspective. First time in Penguin Classics A former slave's intimate memoir of the Lincoln White House, a timeless addition to the canons of African American and Civil War literatureOriginally published in 1868-when it was attacked as an "indecent book" authored by a "traitorous eavesdropper"-Behind the Scenes is the story of Elizabeth Keckley, who began her life as a slave and became a privileged witness to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Keckley bought her freedom at the age of thirty-seven and set up a successful dressmaking business in Washington, D.C. She became modiste to Mary Todd Lincoln and in time her friend and confidante, a relationship that continued after Lincoln's assassination. In documenting that friendship-often using the First Lady's own letters-Behind the Scenes fuses the slave narrative with the political memoir. It remains extraordinary for its poignancy, candor, and historical perspective.First time in Penguin Classics A seamstress and friend of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln describes her days as a slave and her memories of the Lincolns