Scholars from James Madison University Libraries in Harrisonburg, Virginia, have recently released A Miserable Revenge: A Story of Life in Virginia, a never-before-published novel from nineteenth-century African American author and educator George A. Newman (1855-1944).
Newman was a prominent figure in education in Harrisonburg, Virginia, serving over three decades as principal of one the city’s earliest Black schools. He wrote A Miserable Revenge between 1876 and 1877, but the book never made it to publication. The 480-page manuscript features a largely White cast of characters and a storyline that includes murderous plots, secret identities, and a disguised detective. It is one of the earliest known examples of both Black-authored fiction about White characters and Black genre fiction.
Available in several formats, the novel is accompanied by essays by scholars Veronica Watson, Mark Metzler Sawin, and Leonard Richards; additional writings by Newman; and a range of resources created by James Madison University students, including interviews with Newman’s descendants.
More information on A Miserable Revenge can be found here.
