Clotel: or, The President's Daughter - William W. Brown

William Wells Brown (ca. 1814-1884) was an abolitionist and social reformer best remembered as the United States' first black novelist and playwright, as well as one of the earliest African-American historians. After escaping from slavery on New Year's Day in 1834, he went on to publish a bestselling memoir, a collection of antislavery songs, the novel Clotel , and many other highly regarded works. Hilton Als is a staff writer for The New Yorker . His work also appears in The New York Review of Books . He is the author of The Women and White Girls . He lives in New York.