LARGER THAN LIFE · BOOK TWO
The Legend of Robert Smalls
Freedom wasn't handed to him. He commandeered it.
Status: Coming June 2027
Robert Smalls never set out to be a legend. He set out to survive being hired out on a Charleston dock as a teenager, to memorize a harbor by feel until he could read it better than anyone who’d ever been paid to, and to steer a stolen Confederate steamer past four armed checkpoints in the dark with his own family hidden below.
This is his story told sideways—through three ordinary people who each crossed his path at a different turning point in his life: a hired-out teenager on the Charleston docks, a boy who comes of age under his watch in the Union Navy, and a Reconstruction-era clerk who builds his own name in ink, modeled on someone who’d taught him the work that goes unseen is still the work that matters most.
None of them ever meet. All of them are changed by the same man.
Grounded in real, documented history—the triumphs are real, and so are the costs.
Praise
Coming soon.
For Fans Of
Info coming soon.
Inside the Book
Includes three black-and-white interior illustrations, one per Part opener, rendered in a grayscale ink-wash vignette style — loose, gestural brushwork with selective black accents, edges fading to white. Each illustration is an atmospheric scene-setter for its Part's era and location, rather than a character portrait:
A coiled mooring line cinched round a dock cleat, harbor boats fading into mist beyond (Part One — Charleston)
A ship’s wheel gripped mid-turn, spray and open water pressing in on every side (Part Two — Union Naval Service)
An open ledger beside a wet-inked quill, the day's names still drying on the page (Part Three — Reconstruction)
Robert Smalls himself does not appear directly in the interior art, consistent with the book's scarcity-driven structure.
Back matter includes: Fact From Fiction | Beyond the Book: Martin Delany | Words Worth Knowing | Educator's Guide | About the Author
Book Details
Pub Date: June, 2027
Page Count: TBD
Trim Size: 5.5 × 8.5 in
Age Range: 14 and up (Grades 9–12)
Also recommended for: Adult readers of historical fiction
Paperback: ISBN TBD · $14.99
Hardcover: ISBN TBD · $23.99
Ebook: ISBN TBD · $8.99
Distribution: IngramSpark (wide) and Amazon (KDP)