Sojourner Books

[Clint Callas]

Aseis wise, yet timid and unable to articulate what is in his huge heart and his keen mind, so others find him an easy target, including his own children. He opens his home to those down on their luck, and finds true friendship in unlikely places. Through hopeful and sad events, despite all the years that go by without any word of him, Ase never stops hoping for the return of his brother.

Hello Carla Cecile Roes! I am so happy that you commented, especially happy to meet someone from the Dutch-German border. My mother grew up in Bavaria, Germany. In 2018, I took a tour of Germany, and met my German relatives for the first time! The title, The Eternal Guest, is beautiful. Yes, I agree, the book is magic. And the internet is magic for connecting us with books and each other. Dank u und danke schn! All the best to you, Carla. Love, Ramona

Though wildly different, all these titles share a sense of imagination about the future, a world in which we are not doomed to repeat the same patterns forever and ever amen; instead, these books point us toward new ways of relating to each other, ourselves, and God.

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My new short story collection, The Talker, was released by Torrey House Press in Spring 2017. You can read an excerpt from the story Up Near Pasco on this site. My novel, 29, was released August 12, 2014. Booklist and Publishers Weekly loved it. Arizona Daily Sun interview by Diandra Markgraf Please buy The Talker and 29 at an indie bookstore. Now, write YOUR stories. Join us for an intensive writing workshop in Markleeville, California.

Copyright2019. All Rights Reserved. The content of this writing services website is exclusively owned by Mary Sojourner (Flagstaff, Arizona). Duplication and usage of all literary writing, short stories, writing tips, writing workshops coursework, and mentoring instruction is prohibited without direct permission from the author and writing teacher.

The Sojourner Truth Room is located at the Oxon Hill Branch. Most materials are available in the Sojourner Truth Room only; copies of selected materials are also available in the library's catalog. A library card or other identification is necessary for accessing some materials. A scanner and photocopy machine are available.

The noted panelist on this flyer are: Journalist William Raspberry, & Jim Vance, Author Sharon Bell Mathis, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Edward Renfore, Brigadier Gen. Lucius Theus, and film producer Topper Carew.

The Oxon Hill Branch of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System was built on the site of the Sojourner Truth Elementary School in 1967, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. In response to the Civil Rights era's growing request for African American research materials, the Oxon Hill Branch Library's special collection was created. It focuses on African American history and culture. Named for Sojourner Truth, the collection continues to honor one of this country's truly remarkable women and has become an outstanding regional resource.

This comprehensive collection of reference materials on African American history and culture includes over 18,000 cataloged items (many are rare or out-of-print), periodicals, sheet music by African American composers, photographs and posters. The pamphlet file contains pamphlets, clippings and other reference sources. The collection is for use in the Sojourner Truth Room but copies of selected materials are also in the library's circulating collection. Information is available from microfilm and hard copy editions of an extensive set of current and historical periodicals, including the NAACP's Crisis (1910), the Journal of Negro History (1916) and Ebony Magazine (1945).

The collection includes editions of some slave narratives and the thirty-one volume Writer's Project series. Other topics are antislavery and slavery tracts, literary criticism, and the history of African Americans in Maryland and Prince George's County.

The books in the Sojourner Truth Room appear in the library catalog. A separate index of biographies, short stories, plays and literary criticism in the collection is available in the Sojourner Truth Room.

The Sojourner Truth Room subscribes to several scholarly magazines and journals and maintains complete back files of many periodical including the Crisis, the Journal of Negro History, the Journal of Negro Education, and the Journal of Black Studies.

An extensive card index provides name access to the biographical information found in books in the collection and the pamphlet file. A separate index provides access to the short stories, speeches and plays in the collection.

On April 28, 2009, Michelle Obama unveiled a bust of Sojourner Truth in Emancipation Hall in the United States Capitol. She said that "Forever more, in the halls of one of our country's greatest monuments of liberty and equality, justice and freedom, Sojourner Truth's story will be told again and again and again and again." From 1864-1867 Truth worked in Washington DC counseling, teaching, and resettling freed slaves. When a new law in March 1865 forbade street horse cars to exclude anyone on account of color, few blacks dared to ride. But Truth did dare and when a conductor slammed her against a door in a attempt to put her off, she had him arrested, brought him to trial, and won her case. This was a story widely covered in the press. This was the third time Truth successfully took a case to court, the first to recover her son, Peter. The second was for slander, while living with a religious group in New York City.

This three story building, on the campus of the State University of New York at New Paltz, built in 1969 and dedicated to Sojourner Truth in 1971, has over half a million volumes and serves as the central library for an eight county area. It is hoped that one day it will have a Sojourner Truth room for researchers who visit. It may seem ironic that a library is named for a woman who could not read or write. It is just as ironic that this great communicator is one of the most famous persons to come from Ulster County. She often said " I can't read books, but I can read the people."

Though Truth never learned to read or write, she produced a book and sold it to support herself. This Narrative, dictated by her to Olive Gilbert was first published in 1850 and was republished five times during her lifetime. Later editions included selections from her Book of Life, a scrapbook containing newspaper articles, letters, songs etc., that she collected. Today she is well-represented in libraries with new editions of her Narrative as well as biographies, plays, juvenile books, and media. Recent biographies are those in 1993 by Carleton Mabee, State University of New York at New Paltz history professor emeritus, and Pulitzer Prize winner; in 1996 by Nell Painter, Princeton University and in 2009 by Margaret Washington, Cornell University. There are also many reference books that include her, books that contain chapters about her, videos and audiotapes of theatrical presentations, as well as teaching materials and posters.

What do we really know about Sojourner Truth? Well, we know that she was born here in Ulster County about 1797. As an adult she was almost six feet tall and spoke English with a Dutch accent. Sojourner Truth first had her picture taken in 1863, while in her sixties. The photographer and date for photograph at the top of this page and to the right are unknown. A larger than life-sized print of the picture at the top hangs near the library entrance. The Carte de Visite, at right, with her picture and the statement " I sell the shadow to support the substance" was one of many she had taken in studios and sold for 25 cents each. At a convention she said that she "used to be sold for other people's benefit, but now she sold herself for her own." We know that she often adopted Quaker dress, choosing not to be portrayed as an object of pity.

Johannes Hardenburgh was a large landower, operated a grist mill, and had seven slaves, according to the 1790 census. He had been a member of the New York colonial assembly and a colonel in the Revolutionary War. His home is pictured at right. While Isabella was an infant,Johannes died and she and her parents became the property of his son, Charles. He ran a hotel and housed all his slaves in a damp basement. That building has not yet been located. Isabella was the next to the youngest of ten or twelve children, most of whom had been sold away.

Isabella prayed for her father to come and he not only made his way to see her but also helped by arranging a sale to Martinus Schryver, a fisherman and tavern keeper, in what is now Port Ewen. He was crude and she said that she learned to swear there, but he was decent to her. She had time to watch the white-sailed sloops on the Hudson River and roam about. She found a special place on an island where she went to talk to God. Much of Port Ewen was part of Schryver's farm, but a street name was, we thought, all that remained.

Ulster County will finally have its own statue of Sojourner Truth, which is what a Kingston committee wanted in 1976, when they received a plaque in front of the Court House. The statue will depict Isabella as a young girl. When plans to improve New York Route 9W located Martinus Schryver's name as owner of a plot at the corner of of Salem Street and 9w (aka Broadway) in Port Ewen, community efforts were made to secure the site for a Sojourner Truth Park. The clay sculpture by New Paltz artist, Trina Green, pictured here, was then cast in bronze. Dedication took place in Port Ewen on September 21, 2013. Click here for more information.

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