Reference Materials – 12 Years A Slave, the 1853 autobiography of a free black man who was kidnapped in Washington DC in 1841 and sold into slavery, which became a famous part of the Abolitionist Movement – Feb 12th

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Ordinarily, we include in each month’s Reference Materials section, book reviews (if they exist) from the NY Times and Washington Post -- and the British press for books with international implications and The Wall Street Journal for books with financial implications.

This situation is unique because the autobiography is 160 years old and, although it was the centerpiece of the Abolitionist Movement for the 7 years leading to the American Civil War, it had fallen into obscurity for more than a century until it became the focus of the movie which won the 2014 Golden Globe for Best Picture and has been nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture.

There do not appear to any book reviews from 160 years ago.

Posted in this section are 4 hybrid reviews -- hybrid in the sense that they focus on the book as well as the movie. In order of relative focus on the book (vs. the movie), they are from:

The London Guardian
The London Telegraph
The London Mail
The New Yorker

Please also see the Original Proposal section above for: (1) a PBS Newshour interview of John Ridley, the author of the movie’s screenplay, and (2) an excerpt from a Wikipedia article summarizing the reaction of movie critics.
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