Carolina Clay

The Life and Legend of the Potter David Drake

Leonard Todd

$44.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Carolina Wren Press
20 June 2024

Ceramic arts, pottery, glass; Biography: historical, political & military; Slavery & abolition of slavery

"The compelling story of a talented potter, enslaved by the author's ancestors, who became one of the singular artists of the nineteenth century.

He signed many of his works simply as ""Dave"" and is known today as Potter David Drake.

He made pots and storage jars-everyday items, but because of their beauty and massive size, and because Dave signed and inscribed many with poems, they are valuable works of art, now commanding six figures at auction. Many of Dave's astounding jars are found now in America's finest museums.

There is no other enslaved artist on record who dared to put his name on his work, a dangerous advertisement of literacy. Fascinated by this man and by his own troubling family history, Leonard Todd moved from Manhattan to Edgefield, South Carolina, the place where his ancestors had established a thriving pottery industry in the early 1800s. Todd studied each of Dave's poems for biographical clues, which he pieced together with local records and family letters to create this moving and dramatic chronicle of Dave's lifea story of creative triumph in the midst of slavery."

By: Leonard Todd
Imprint: Carolina Wren Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 162mm, Width: 243mm,
ISBN: 9781958888193
ISBN 10: 1958888192
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 20 June 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Chapter 1 - Purchases Chapter 2 - Discoveries Chapter 3 - Words Chapter 4 - Fire-Eaters Chapter 5 - Trips Chapter 6 - Sermons Chapter 7 - Families Chapter 8 - Murders Chapter 9 - Jars Chapter 10 - Cousins Chapter 11 - Battles Chapter 12 - Reunions Chapter 13 - Votes Chapter 14 - Shirts Chapter 15 - Echoes Afterword Inscriptions A Word on Sources Notes Selected Bibliography Index

Leonard Todd, the author of three previous books, has written for Travel & Leisure and Cosmopolitan, among other magazines. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Art and Architecture and works as a graphic designer. He lives in Edgefield, South Carolina.

Reviews for Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of the Potter David Drake

"""The life of the slave potter Dave unfolds against a backdrop of cruelty, repression, war and unexpected tenderness in this intimate history. . . . [N]ot so much a definitive biography of Dave as a sweeping tale of the South itself and a touching testament to the artist.""--Publishers Weekly"