Reviews
Praise for The Black Calhouns "Gail Lumet Buckley's family portrait reminds us how personal African American history still is. From Reconstruction and the triumph of Jim Crow in the South to World War II and the beginnings of mass political activism for equality--Buckley relates black survival and progress through the experiences of her ambitious, complicated family. The Black Calhouns is a history of the Talented Tenth, North and South. They are an insular class, these black cousins, beautiful, educated, fair in complexion, and blessed--or cursed--with choices at a time when life offered most black Americans few. At the heart of Buckley's spirited account is her mother, Lena Horne, the great star and social subversive who redeemed the Secessionist name that the founding patriarch of her clan had carried so proudly into freedom." -- Darryl Pinckney, author of Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature and Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy "Deeply personal and historically significant." -- David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize winning author of King: A Biography and W. E. B. Du Bois, 1919-1963: The Fight for Equality and the American Century "Gail Lumet Buckley has written another important piece of history; this one about her Calhoun family beginning with her ancestor Moses, who spent a part of his life as a slave. Once freed after the Civil War, Moses became a businessman and founded a family of strong educated women, who kept their families and communities together. It is the history of her extraordinary family in a wider context of Reconstruction, the struggles against Jim Crow and for civil rights." -- Frances FitzGerald, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Fire in the Lake "Not just a family story but an utterly gripping panorama of American life, a passionate, eloquent, and powerful work of history and memoir. Through wars and dubious peace, in the Deep South, in Hollywood, Washington, and New York, the Calhoun family has been at the center of an unending, often bloody and tragic struggle for justice." -- Henry Wiencek, author of The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White , winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography "Buckley brings her luminous style to her luminous family in a compelling story that blends deep historical research with a sure sense of the context of race, politics and entertainment in the late 19th and 20th Centuries. It's her history, but ours, too." -- Jonathan Alter, author of the New York Times bestseller The Promise: President Obama, Year One "Strong men wept when Lena Horne, Gail Lumet Buckley's legendary mother, gave the crowd 'Stormy Weather.' Reading this clear-eyed, bright-hearted family epic, you're liable to shed tears of your own, for the story of Gail and Lena and the black Calhouns is the story of our nation." -- Benjamin Taylor, author of Naples Declared and editor of There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction of Saul Bellow "Readers are fortunate that Gail Buckley did not move to Paris--as she once threatened John F. Kennedy she would--but instead remained in America to research and write this beautiful and moving account of her family--half of whom stayed in the South while the rest moved North--whose courage, perseverance, and accomplishments allowed them to endure and even thrive during a shameful and overlooked period in America's deeply troubling racist history." -- Lily Tuck, author of The Double Life of Liliane, Praise for The Black Calhouns "Gail Lumet Buckley's family portrait reminds us how personal African American history still is. From Reconstruction and the triumph of Jim Crow in the South to World War II and the beginnings of mass political activism for equality--Buckley relates black survival and progress through the experiences of her ambitious, complicated family. The Black Calhouns is a history of the Talented Tenth, North and South. They are an insular class, these black cousins, beautiful, educated, fair in complexion, and blessed--or cursed--with choices at a time when life offered most black Americans few. At the heart of Buckley's spirited account is her mother, Lena Horne, the great star and social subversive who redeemed the Secessionist name that the founding patriarch of her clan had carried so proudly into freedom." -- Darryl Pinckney, author of Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature and Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy "Deeply personal and historically significant." -- David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize winning author of King: A Biography and W. E. B. Du Bois, 1919-1963: The Fight for Equality and the American Century "Gail Lumet Buckley has written another important piece of history; this one about her Calhoun family beginning with her ancestor Moses, who spent a part of his life as a slave. Once freed after the Civil War, Moses became a businessman and founded a family of strong educated women, who kept their families and communities together. It is the history of her extraordinary family in a wider context of Reconstruction, the struggles against Jim Crow and for civil rights." -- Frances FitzGerald, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Fire in the Lake "Buckley brings her luminous style to her luminous family in a compelling story that blends deep historical research with a sure sense of the context of race, politics and entertainment in the late 19th and 20th Centuries. It's her history, but ours, too." -- Jonathan Alter, author of the New York Times bestseller The Promise: President Obama, Year One "Strong men wept when Lena Horne, Gail Lumet Buckley's legendary mother, gave the crowd 'Stormy Weather.' Reading this clear-eyed, bright-hearted family epic, you're liable to shed tears of your own, for the story of Gail and Lena and the black Calhouns is the story of our nation." -- Benjamin Taylor, author of Naples Declared and editor of There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction of Saul Bellow "Readers are fortunate that Gail Buckley did not move to Paris--as she once threatened John F. Kennedy she would--but instead remained in America to research and write this beautiful and moving account of her family--half of whom stayed in the South while the rest moved North--whose courage, perseverance, and accomplishments allowed them to endure and even thrive during a shameful and overlooked period in America's deeply troubling racist history." -- Lily Tuck, author of The Double Life of Liliane, Praise for The Black Calhouns "Strong men wept when Lena Horne, Gail Lumet Buckley's legendary mother, gave the crowd 'Stormy Weather.' Reading this clear-eyed, bright-hearted family epic, you're liable to shed tears of your own, for the story of Gail and Lena and the black Calhouns is the story of our nation." -- Benjamin Taylor, author of Naples Declared and editor of There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction of Saul Bellow "Readers are fortunate that Gail Buckley did not move to Paris--as she once threatened John F. Kennedy she would--but instead remained in America to research and write this beautiful and moving account of her family--half of whom stayed in the South while the rest moved North--whose courage, perseverance, and accomplishments allowed them to endure and even thrive during a shameful and overlooked period in America's deeply troubling racist history." -- Lily Tuck, author of The Double Life of Liliane, Praise for The Black Calhouns "Gail Lumet Buckley's family portrait reminds us how personal African American history still is. From Reconstruction and the triumph of Jim Crow in the South to World War II and the beginnings of mass political activism for equality--Buckley relates black survival and progress through the experiences of her ambitious, complicated family. The Black Calhouns is a history of the Talented Tenth, North and South. They are an insular class, these black cousins, beautiful, educated, fair in complexion, and blessed--or cursed--with choices at a time when life offered most black Americans few. At the heart of Buckley's spirited account is her mother, Lena Horne, the great star and social subversive who redeemed the Secessionist name that the founding patriarch of her clan had carried so proudly into freedom." -- Darryl Pinckney, author of Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature and Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy "Strong men wept when Lena Horne, Gail Lumet Buckley's legendary mother, gave the crowd 'Stormy Weather.' Reading this clear-eyed, bright-hearted family epic, you're liable to shed tears of your own, for the story of Gail and Lena and the black Calhouns is the story of our nation." -- Benjamin Taylor, author of Naples Declared and editor of There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction of Saul Bellow "Readers are fortunate that Gail Buckley did not move to Paris--as she once threatened John F. Kennedy she would--but instead remained in America to research and write this beautiful and moving account of her family--half of whom stayed in the South while the rest moved North--whose courage, perseverance, and accomplishments allowed them to endure and even thrive during a shameful and overlooked period in America's deeply troubling racist history." -- Lily Tuck, author of The Double Life of Liliane, Praise for The Black Calhouns "[An] assiduously researched and gracefully written family history . . . entrancingly well-told . . . Buckley's superbly realized American family portrait is enthralling and resounding." -- Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review) "In this thoroughly engaging family chronicle, Buckley reveals an expansive tapestry of African American history . . . [her] awesomely informative shout-out to the Calhouns is a treat to read." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Gail Lumet Buckley's family portrait reminds us how personal African American history still is. From Reconstruction and the triumph of Jim Crow in the South to World War II and the beginnings of mass political activism for equality--Buckley relates black survival and progress through the experiences of her ambitious, complicated family." -- Darryl Pinckney, author of Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature and Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy "Deeply personal and historically significant." -- David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize winning author of King: A Biography and W. E. B. Du Bois, 1919-1963: The Fight for Equality and the American Century "Gail Lumet Buckley has written another important piece of history; this one about her Calhoun family beginning with her ancestor Moses, who spent a part of his life as a slave. Once freed after the Civil War, Moses became a businessman and founded a family of strong educated women, who kept their families and communities together. It is the history of her extraordinary family in a wider context of Reconstruction, the struggles against Jim Crow and for civil rights." -- Frances FitzGerald, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Fire in the Lake "Not just a family story but an utterly gripping panorama of American life, a passionate, eloquent, and powerful work of history and memoir. Through wars and dubious peace, in the Deep South, in Hollywood, Washington, and New York, the Calhoun family has been at the center of an unending, often bloody and tragic struggle for justice." -- Henry Wiencek, author of The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White , winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography "Buckley brings her luminous style to her luminous family in a compelling story that blends deep historical research with a sure sense of the context of race, politics and entertainment in the late 19th and 20th Centuries. It's her history, but ours, too." -- Jonathan Alter, author of the New York Times bestseller The Promise: President Obama, Year One "Strong men wept when Lena Horne, Gail Lumet Buckley's legendary mother, gave the crowd 'Stormy Weather.' Reading this clear-eyed, bright-hearted family epic, you're liable to shed tears of your own, for the story of Gail and Lena and the black Calhouns is the story of our nation." -- Benjamin Taylor, author of Naples Declared and editor of There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction of Saul Bellow "Readers are fortunate that Gail Buckley did not move to Paris--as she once threatened John F. Kennedy she would--but instead remained in America to research and write this beautiful and moving account of her family--half of whom stayed in the South while the rest moved North--whose courage, perseverance, and accomplishments allowed them to endure and even thrive during a shameful and overlooked period in America's deeply troubling racist history." -- Lily Tuck, author of The Double Life of Liliane, Praise for The Black Calhouns "In this thoroughly engaging family chronicle, Buckley reveals an expansive tapestry of African American history . . . [her] awesomely informative shout-out to the Calhouns is a treat to read." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Gail Lumet Buckley's family portrait reminds us how personal African American history still is. From Reconstruction and the triumph of Jim Crow in the South to World War II and the beginnings of mass political activism for equality--Buckley relates black survival and progress through the experiences of her ambitious, complicated family." -- Darryl Pinckney, author of Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature and Blackballed: The Black Vote and US Democracy "Deeply personal and historically significant." -- David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize winning author of King: A Biography and W. E. B. Du Bois, 1919-1963: The Fight for Equality and the American Century "Gail Lumet Buckley has written another important piece of history; this one about her Calhoun family beginning with her ancestor Moses, who spent a part of his life as a slave. Once freed after the Civil War, Moses became a businessman and founded a family of strong educated women, who kept their families and communities together. It is the history of her extraordinary family in a wider context of Reconstruction, the struggles against Jim Crow and for civil rights." -- Frances FitzGerald, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Fire in the Lake "Not just a family story but an utterly gripping panorama of American life, a passionate, eloquent, and powerful work of history and memoir. Through wars and dubious peace, in the Deep South, in Hollywood, Washington, and New York, the Calhoun family has been at the center of an unending, often bloody and tragic struggle for justice." -- Henry Wiencek, author of The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White , winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography "Buckley brings her luminous style to her luminous family in a compelling story that blends deep historical research with a sure sense of the context of race, politics and entertainment in the late 19th and 20th Centuries. It's her history, but ours, too." -- Jonathan Alter, author of the New York Times bestseller The Promise: President Obama, Year One "Strong men wept when Lena Horne, Gail Lumet Buckley's legendary mother, gave the crowd 'Stormy Weather.' Reading this clear-eyed, bright-hearted family epic, you're liable to shed tears of your own, for the story of Gail and Lena and the black Calhouns is the story of our nation." -- Benjamin Taylor, author of Naples Declared and editor of There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction of Saul Bellow "Readers are fortunate that Gail Buckley did not move to Paris--as she once threatened John F. Kennedy she would--but instead remained in America to research and write this beautiful and moving account of her family--half of whom stayed in the South while the rest moved North--whose courage, perseverance, and accomplishments allowed them to endure and even thrive during a shameful and overlooked period in America's deeply troubling racist history." -- Lily Tuck, author of The Double Life of Liliane
