The Past is Present podcast returns with an interview with Ezra Greenspan. Ezra is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Chair in Humanities at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and author of George Palmer Putnam: Representative American Publisher (2000) and William Wells Brown: An African American Life (2014). During the past year, he’s been working on a new book titled The Lives and Times of Frederick Douglass and His Family: A Composite Biography. Ezra is a member of the American Antiquarian Society (elected 2003), was AAS Distinguished Scholar in Residence from 2009 to 2010, and is an AAS-National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow for the 2016-17 academic year.
In this episode, Ezra discusses the research and writing of his latest book on Frederick Douglass’s family; his work as editor of Book History, the annual journal from SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing); and his lifelong relationship with the printed word.
What a wonderful interview . I could listen to Ezra all day…..so much here that I will have to listen a second time . I truly can’t wait to read this book…… sounds like he is only at the beginning of his research so I assume it will be several years. I do hope you interview him again in a few years so we can hear where his work and his thinking have lead him .
I’m so happy you enjoyed the interview! I’m sure Ezra will return when the book is published, so we’ll try to snag him for a follow-up interview then.