The Sweet Hell Inside: The Rise of an Elite Black Family in the Segregated South (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780060505905)

From National Book Award winner Edward Ball comes The Sweet Hell Inside, the story of the fascinating Harleston family of South Carolina, the progeny of a Southern gentleman and his slave, who cast off their blemished roots and prospered despite racial barriers. Enhanced by recollections from the family's archivist, eighty-four-year-old Edwina Harleston Whitlock -- whose bloodline the author shares. The Sweet Hell Inside features a celebrated portrait artist whose subjects included industrialist Pierre du Pont; a black classical composer in the Lost Generation of 1920s Paris; and an orphanage founder who created the famous Jenkins Orphanage Band, a definitive force in the development of ragtime and jazz.

With evocative and engrossing storytelling, Edward Ball introduces a cast of historical characters rarely seen before: cultured, vain, imperfect, rich, and black -- a family of eccentrics who defied social convention and flourished.

Author: Edward Ball
ISBN-10: 0060505907
ISBN-13: 9780060505905
Publisher: William Morrow & Company
Language: English
Published: 11/05/2002
Pages: 432
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.77lbs
Size: 7.99h x 5.32w x 1.07d

Review Citation(s):
Commonweal 06/20/2003 pg. 26