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By Barbara Ransby (trade hardcover)

The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson

“In this incredibly powerful, vital work, Ransby has rescued Eslanda Robeson from the shadows of her famous husband and established her as one of the most important activists, scholars, critics, and theorists to connect anticolonialism with the black freedom movement in the U.S.” – Robin Kelley, author of Thelonious Mank: The Life and Times of an American Original

“From a master biographer and historian of African American women, this mesmerizing story of an extraordinary woman’s life and struggles offers a global view of black radical history. After this book no one will be able to think of Eslanda merely as Mrs. Paul Robeson.” – Linda Gordon, author of Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits

“Barbara Ransby has produced an isnsightful, fascinating, and significant biography. Eslanda Robeson has too long stood in the shadow of her remarkable husband, but as Ransby shows she was an important writer and political activist in her own right, whose life illuminates the international dimensions of the twentieth-century black freedom movement.” – Eric Foner, Columbia University

“This is an enormously rich book by a masterful biographer, full of novel insights and surprises.” – Penny Van Eschen, University of Michigan