Behind the Scenes

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE

FOR THE PAST three years, The Lakeside Classics has traveled beyond the borders of the United States to Asia, to the Arctic, to Europe. This year we return home to America and to the tumultuous mid-nineteenth century.

Behind the Scenes presents a voice and a perspective very different from those presented in past editions of The Lakeside Classics. This is the first authored by an African American. It is the story of Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, born into slavery in Virginia, who through her skill as a modiste (dressmaker) bought freedom for herself and her son in the 1850s. She moved to Washington, D.C., opened a business, and became a dressmaker for and intimate of Mary Todd Lincoln during and after the Lincoln White House years.

Slavery is not a pleasant topic. Its existence casts a long and sorrowful shadow on our history. But, it was reality, and it was the experience of the ancestors of many Americans. Keckley's story, while disturbing, is also inspirational. It tells boldly and vividly of experiences not heard before in this series. It also provides unique insights into the life of the Lincolns.

The Historical Introduction, written by Frances Smith Foster, offers a valuable context for Elizabeth Keckley's story. It explores the literary genre represented by her chronicle of life inside slavery and as a free woman in the capital. And, it fills in the life of Keckley during and after publication of the book.

This year, Frances Smith Foster, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Women's Studies, Department of English, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, served as our editor. Besides providing the Introduction, she also edited and annotated the text and helped select illustrations. Other writing and editing credits include The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, as well as its Teacher's Guide; The Oxford Companion to African American Literature; Written by Herself: Literary Production by African American Women, 1746-1892; A Brighter, Coming Day: A Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader; and Witnessing Slavery: The Development of the Antebellum Slave Narrative. She is on the editorial boards of such publications as African American Review, American Literature, and Legacy: American Women Writers.