In his lifetime Washington was the most influential African American in the United States. In this volume the editors hope to convey the shaping forces of his early life. They have gathered and annotated more than 400 documents, including letters, speeches, articles, and other writings from shortly after Washington's birth in 1856 to the death of his second wife in 1889. Much of the material relates to the founding of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. Washington's life became so interwoven with his school that to illustrate his career is also to tell the story of the institution.''A major event by any standards. At long last friends, critics, and even enemies of Washington can see him only as his papers can reveal him. . . . In the papers we can find confirmations of our various opinions of him, but we can also find surprises in the life and views of a man that too few of his contemporaries really knew and understood.''--John Hope Franklin, University of Chicago ''An extraordinary set of papers, not just for Negro history but for the history of the early twentieth century. Washington has an incredibly large correspondence with important scholars, philanthropists, and politicians of his age, and the publication will be an enormous service to scholars.''--Kenneth M. Stampp, University of California ''Louis Harlan is an extraordinary able scholar and certainly one of the most perceptive and thoughtful historians working in the field of Negro history. . . . The undertaking is going to be one of the truly distinguished editorial contributions of our generation.''--Dewey Grantham, Vanderbilt University
