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Title details for Gloryland by Shelton Johnson - Available

Gloryland

A Novel

by Shelton Johnson
ebook
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1 of 1 copy available
This historical fiction novel “of extraordinary imagination and sympathy” follows an African American soldier’s “journey from slavery to the mountaintop” as he protects Yosemite National Park after the Civil War (Ken Burns).
Born on Emancipation Day, 1863, to a sharecropping family of black and Indian blood, Elijah Yancy never lived as a slave—but his self–image as a free person is at war with his surroundings: Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the Reconstructed South. Exiled for his own survival as a teenager, Elijah walks west to the Nebraska plains—and, like other rootless young African American men of that era, joins up with the US cavalry.
The trajectory of Elijah’s army career parallels the nation’s imperial adventures in the late 19th century: subduing Native Americans in the West, quelling rebellion in the Philippines. Haunted by the terrors endured by Black Americans and by his part in persecuting other people of color, Elijah is sustained only by visions, memories, prayers, and his questing spirit—which ultimately finds a home when his troop is posted to the newly created Yosemite National Park in 1903. Here, living with little beyond mountain light, running water, campfires, and stars, he becomes a man who owns himself completely, while knowing he’s left pieces of himself scattered along his life’s path like pebbles on a creek bed.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 1, 2010

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781578051816

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781578051816
      • File size: 414 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Booklist

      September 15, 2009
      Elijah Yancy was born with African and Indian blood in 1863 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on Emancipation Day. But freedom is not synonymous with equality in Spartanburg. Out of fear for his safety, Elijahs parents force him to leave home at age 16. With few options, Elijah makes his way to Nebraska and enlists in the U.S. Cavalry. During stints in the Philippines, Cuba, and the Presidio, Elijah struggles with orders to subdue people fighting for their freedom. It isnt until he gets posted to Yosemite National Park that Elijah finally comes into his own. Patrolling the beautiful and wild nature preserve, Elijah has time to process all he has seen and been through, while finding comfort in a place indifferent to the color of his skin. Johnsons telling of Elijahs life takes the form of a diary written in prose with a soothing cadence, a medium in which a man feels at liberty to be brutally honest about himself and his circumstances. Johnsons novel is an engaging and poetic meditation on what it means to be truly free.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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