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12 Years a Slave (Movie Tie-In)
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12 Years a Slave (Movie Tie-In) Paperback - 2013

by Solomon Northup; Henry Louis Gates (Editor); Introduction by Ira Berlin


Summary

Now a major motion picture starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, and Alfre Woodard, this tie-in edition features a foreword from acclaimed director Steve McQueen
 
Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation.
 
After his rescue, Northup published this exceptionally vivid and detailed account of slave life. It became an immediate bestseller and today is recognized for its unusual insight and eloquence as one of the very few portraits of American slavery produced by someone as educated as Solomon Northup, or by someone with the dual perspective of having been both a free man and a slave.

From the publisher

The official movie tie-in edition to the winner of the 2014 Academy Award for Best Picture, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, and Lupita Nyong'o, and directed by Steve McQueen New York Times bestseller "I could not believe that I had never heard of this book. It felt as important as Anne Frank's Diary, only published nearly a hundred years before. . . . The book blew [my] mind: the epic range, the details, the adventure, the horror, and the humanity. . . . I hope my film can play a part in drawing attention to this important book of courage. Solomon's bravery and life deserve nothing less." --Steve McQueen, director of 12 Years a Slave, from the Foreword Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation. After his rescue, Northup published this exceptionally vivid and detailed account of slave life. It became an immediate bestseller and today is recognized for its unusual insight and eloquence as one of the very few portraits of American slavery produced by someone as educated as Solomon Northup, or by someone with the dual perspective of having been both a free man and a slave.

Details

  • Title 12 Years a Slave (Movie Tie-In)
  • Author Solomon Northup; Henry Louis Gates (Editor); Introduction by Ira Berlin
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition MTI
  • Pages 304
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Books, New York
  • Date 2013-09-04
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Movie/TV Tie-In
  • ISBN 9780143125419 / 0143125419
  • Weight 0.47 lbs (0.21 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.81 x 5.09 x 0.76 in (19.84 x 12.93 x 1.93 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Reading level 1200
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 19th Century
    • Chronological Period: 1800-1850
    • Cultural Region: Deep South
    • Cultural Region: Mid-South
    • Cultural Region: Southeast U.S.
    • Ethnic Orientation: African American
    • Geographic Orientation: Louisiana
    • Topical: Black History
  • Library of Congress subjects African Americans, Slaves - United States
  • Dewey Decimal Code B

Media reviews

“I could not believe that I had never heard of this book. It felt as important as Anne Frank’s Diary, only published nearly a hundred years before. . . . The book blew [my] mind: the epic range, the details, the adventure, the horror, and the humanity. . . . I hope my film can play a part in drawing attention to this important book of courage. Solomon’s bravery and life deserve nothing less.” —Steve McQueen, director of 12 Years a Slave, from the Foreword

“Frightening, gripping and inspiring . . . Northup’s story seems almost biblical, structured as it is as a descent and resurrection narrative of a protagonist who, like Christ, was 33 at the time of his abduction. . . . Northup reminds us of the fragile nature of freedom in any human society and the harsh reality that whatever legal boundaries existed between so-called free states and slave states in 1841, no black man, woman or child was permanently safe.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Root

“If you think the movie offers a terrible-enough portrait of slavery, please, do read the book. . . . The film is stupendous art, but it owes much to a priceless piece of document. Solomon Northup’s memoir is history. . . . His was not simply an extraordinary story, but an account of the life of a great many ordinary people.”The Daily Beast
 

“Northup published a memoir of his 12-year nightmare in 1853, the year after Uncle Tom’s Cabin came out, and it was so successful that he went on to participate in two stage adaptations. The book dropped from sight in the 20th century, but the movie tie-in will certainly reestablish its virtually unique status as a work by an educated free man who managed to return from slavery.”The Hollywood Reporter

About the author

Solomon Northup (1808-c. 1863) was a free man kidnapped and forced into slavery in 1851. The details of his life after the publication of his acclaimed memoir are unknown. Ira Berlin is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Maryland, College Park. His many books include The Making of African America and Many Thousands Gone, winner of the Bancroft Prize and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W. E. B Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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12 Years a Slave: (Movie Tie-In) (Penguin Classics)
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12 Years a Slave: (Movie Tie-In) (Penguin Classics)

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12 Years a Slave: (Movie Tie-In) (Penguin Classics)
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12 Years a Slave: (Movie Tie-In) (Penguin Classics)
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12 Years a Slave: (Movie Tie-In) (Penguin Classics)

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12 Years a Slave (Movie Tie-In) (Penguin Classics)
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12 Years a Slave (Movie Tie-In) (Penguin Classics)

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12 Years a Slave (Movie Tie-In) (Penguin Classics)

by Northup, Solomon; Gates, Henry Louis [Editor]; Berlin, Ira [Introduction]; Gates, Henry Louis [Afterword]; McQueen, Steve [Foreword];

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12 Years a Slave (Movie Tie-In) (Penguin Classics)

by Northup, Solomon; Gates, Henry Louis [Editor]; Berlin, Ira [Introduction]; Gates, Henry Louis [Afterword]; McQueen, Steve [Foreword];

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