Passing Strange : A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line

by Sandweiss, Martha A. (Author)

• ISBN13: 9781594202001
• ISBN10: 1594202001
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-02-05
• Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The

Summary

"Passing Strange" is a uniquely American biography of Clarence King, who hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent family: for 13 years he lived a double life--as the celebrated white explorer, geologist, and writer King and as a black Pullman porter and steelworker named James Todd.

Author Biography

Martha A. Sandweiss received her Ph.D. in history from Yale University and worked for many years as a museum curator and director before becoming professor of American studies and history at Amherst College. She is the author of numerous works on western American history and the history of photography, including Print the Legend: Photography and the American West, winner of the Organization of American Historians-' Ray Allen Billington Award, and Laura Gilpin: An Enduring Grace and is the coeditor of the Oxford History of the American West.

Table of Contents

Prologue: An Invented Life	p. 1
Clarence King and Ada Copeland
Becoming Clarence King	p. 13
King of the West	p. 47
Becoming Ada Copeland	p. 71
King of the City	p. 97
James and Ada Todd
New Beginnings	p. 131
Family Lives	p. 158
Breakdowns	p. 185
Endings	p. 212
Ada King
On Her Own	p. 247
The Trial	p. 277
Epilogue	p. 302
Acknowledgments	p. 307
Notes	p. 313
Index	p. 359
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