Books like Passing Strange by Martha A. Sandweiss

Clarence King, celebrated as a pioneer geologist who mapped the American West, maintained a secret identity for thirteen years as James Todd, a Black Pullman porter and steelworker. His concealed life came to light only when he informed his black common‑law wife, Ada, at his deathbed. Martha A. Sandweiss uncovers this remarkable story, tracing King’s public persona of espousing a uniquely American "race"—an amalgam of white and Black—to his private reality of loving Ada and raising their five biracial children. The book follows the family's journey from their 1888 marriage, through Ada’s death in 1964, to the legacy left to King’s granddaughter who marries a white man and adopts a white child to shield her family from the enduring legacies of racism. Through extensive research spanning the Civil War to the Civil Rights era, Passing Strange offers a nuanced portrait of self‑invention, love, deception, and the social fault lines of celebrity, class, and race in America.

First publish date: 2009