Personal Library of Frederick Douglass

Introduction: Frederick Douglass Personal Library

Frederick Douglass:  The shaping of a mind – from slavery to freedom to success. How does someone rise from slavery to success? Born into slavery, Frederick Douglass freed himself after being physically abused one time too many. He endured several horrific beatings and wasn't a compliant slave.

Douglass tricked a white boy into teaching him how to read, and the ability to read allowed him to see the world with a new lens. His thirst and hunger for knowledge enabled him to rise to success. He tells his remarkable story in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass possessed over 1,300 books in his personal library.

Below is a selection of the books from his library that I found on the Library Thing website, and I selected them mainly by the name of the authors whom I recognized. I also selected some of the books based on their title. I spent an hour browsing the page on Library Thing dedicated to Frederick Douglass, and once again I noticed how varied the books are in his library, and like George Washington’s library, the books are from the same genre – many of which are books to make you think.

 Les Misérables (Original Broadway Cast Recording) Les Miserables (Enriched Classics) The Heir of Wast-Wayland: A Tale A Word in Season: A Series of Subjects Addressed to the Flock Committed to His Charge The Odyssey

Have you read?

Why read, what to read, and Teddy Roosevelt
The Personal Library of Carl Sandburg
The Personal Library of George Washington
The Libraries of Great Men: Frederick Douglass

Based on what I have discovered so far based on working on the series on the personal library of successful people, I think that I could guess which types of books will shape the mind, but more about that later in the series.

1. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
2. La Chute, Victor Hugo
3. The Heir of Wast-Wayland a Tale., Mary Howitt
4. Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe (Foundations of Natural History), Alexander von Humboldt
5. Art-Student in Munich, Mrs. Anna Mary Howitt Watts
6. A Word in Season; A Series of Subjects Addressed to the Flock Committed to His Charge, John Hooper
7. Popular infidelity (Library of Christian knowledge), Herman Hooker
8. The Complete Poetical Works Of Thomas Hood: With A Biographical Sketch And Notes, Volumes 1-2, Thomas Hood
9. The Iliad (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition), Homer
10. The Odyssey, Homer
11. The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table, Oliver Wendell Holmes
12. A Life for Liberty: Anti-Slavery and Other Letters of Sallie Holley, Sallie Holley
13. Samantha On the Race Problem, Marietta Holley
14. My Opinions and Betsey Bobbet's, Marietta Holley
15. Kathrina: Her Life and Mine, a Poem, J. G. Holland
16. Bitter-Sweet: A Poem, J. G. Holland
17. A dictionary of terms used in medicine and the collateral sciences, Richard D. Hoblyn
18. Enigmas, historical and geographical, Elizabeth Hitchener
19. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
20. A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges, Albert Harkness
21. But Yet a Woman: A Novel, Arthur Sherburne Hardy
22. Memoir of Harlan Page: The Power of Prayer and Personal Effort for the Souls of Individuals, William A. Hallock
23. Lincoln and Stanton: a study of the war administration of 1861 and 1862, with special consideration of some recent statements of Gen. Geo. B. McClellan, William D. Kelley
24. The Poetical Works of John Keats, John Keats
25. Paris and Its Environs: With Routes from London to Paris, Paris to the Rhine and Switzerland ; Handbook for Travellers, Karl Baedeker (Firm)
26. Southern Italy & Sicily: Baedeker's Handbook for Travellers, Karl Baedeker (Firm)
27. Italy: Handbook for Travellers. Second Part: Central Italy and Rome, Karl Baedeker (Firm)
28. Italy: Handbook for Travellers: First Part, Northern Italy, Including Leghorn, Florence, Ravenna, the Island of Corsica, and Routes Through France, Switzerland and Austria, Part 1, Karl Baedeker (Firm)
29. Political Recollections 1840 to 1872, George Washington Julian
30. Classic tales (Works of Samuel Johnson), Samuel Johnson
31. Foreign Parts…, Henry James
32. The Sketch Book, Crayon Papers, Knickerbocker, & Tour of the Prairies, Washington Irving
33. The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Illustrated), Washington Irving
34. The Conquest of Granada – Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey, Washington Irving
35. Tales of a Traveller, Washington Irving
36. The adventures of Captain Bonneville. Life of Oliver Goldsmith (Complete Set of 15 Volumes of the Works of Washington Irving 1903 Complete 15 Volume SET), Washington Irving
37. Astoria, or, anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains, Washington Irving
38. The American Statesman: A Political History, Exhibiting the Origin, Nature and Practical Operation of Constitutional Government in the United States; the Rise and Progress of Parties; and the Views of Distinguished Statesmen on Questions of Foreign and Domestic Policy; Brought Down to the Present Time: with an Appendix, Andrew W. Young
39. The Orations (Complete Vol. 1-4) & On Moral Duties (De Officiis) (Two Books With Active Table of Contents), Marcus Tullius Cicero
40. Select pieces from the poems of William Wordsworth, William Wordsworth
41. A New Method Of Learning The German Language Embracing Both The Analytic And Synthetic Modes Of Instruction …, W. H. Woodbury
42. A class-book of botany, designed for colleges, academies, and other seminaries where science is taught … Illustrated by a flora of the northern United States particularly New England and New York, Alphonso Wood
43. Pensées De Blaise Pascal: Avec Les Notes De Voltaire… (French Edition), Voltaire
44. The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I. Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments
45. The sleeping princess California, Alice Edwards Pratt
46. The course of time, a poem, Robert Pollok
47. Little Ferns For Fanny's Little Friends, Fanny Fern
48. AbC of Gothic Architecture, Henry Parker
49. The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, William Paley
50. Introduction to English Literature: With Suggestions for Further Reading and Study, and Annotated Selections …, Franklin Verzelius Newton Painter
51. Life Without and Life within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems, Margaret Fuller
52. Letters from the United States, Cuba and Canada, Amelia M. Murray
53. Better dead than homeless: Founded on fact (The Voters library), William Henry Michael
54. Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius
55. The Vicar of Wakefield: A Tale Supposed to Be Written by Himself, Oliver Goldsmith
56. The Sorrows of Young Werther (Oxford World's Classics), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
57. Italienische Reise (German Edition), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
58. An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance, John Foster
59. The Works of Henry Fielding, Complete in One Volume, With Memoir of the Author by Thomas Roscoe, Henry Fielding
60. Serapis: A Romance, Georg Ebers
61. An Egyptian Princess – Complete, Georg Ebers
62. The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
63. The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics), Alexandre Dumas
64. The Surgeon's Daughter, and Quentin Durward, Sir Walter Scott
65. The monastery: a romance (The Works of Sir Walter Scott (31 books) [Illustrated]), Sir Walter Scott
66. History Of Woman Suffrage, Volume 1…, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
67. The Plays of William Shakspeare: King Henry Vi., Part Iii. King Richard Iii. King Henry Viii. Troilus and Cressida, William Shakespeare
68. The Complete Dramatic Works, and Miscellaneous Poems, of William Shakspeare. With glossarial notes & life, by N. Rowe. With a portrait, William Shakespeare
69. The life and beauties of Shakespeare : comprising careful selections from each play, with a general index, digesting them under proper heads, William Shakespeare
70. My husband and I: and other stories, Leo Tolstoy
71. The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century, William Makepeace Thackeray
72. Tennyson: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets), Alfred Tennyson
73. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Penguin Classics), Edward Gibbon
74. Pushing To The Front : Success Under Difficulties, Orison Swett Marden
75. The May Flower: And Miscellaneous Writings, Harriet Beecher Stowe
76. Men of our times; or, Leading patriots of the day. Being narratives of the lives and deeds of statesmen, generals and orators. By Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Beecher Stowe
77. The Countess Rudolstadt: Being a Sequel to Consuelo, George Sand
78. Mornings in Florence, John Ruskin
79. Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau – Volume II, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
80. Henrietta Temple A Love Story, Benjamin Disraeli
81. Sketches By Boz : Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People, Charles Dickens
82. Bleak House (Penguin Classics), Charles Dickens
83. The Works of Robert Burns: With an Account of His Life , and a Criticism On His Writing. to Which Are Prefixed, Some Observations On the Character and Condition of the Scottish Peasantry, Volume 4, by James Currie, Robert Burns
84. Publii Virgilii Maronis Opera: Or, the Works of Virgil. With Copious Notes, Mythological, Biographical, Historical. In English Comp. From the Best … With the Text. Designed for the Use of Stud
85. The Haunted Adjutant, and Other Stories (Classic Reprint), Edmund Quincy
86. Patriotic addresses in America and England, from 1850 to 1885, on slavery, the Civil war, and the development of civil liberty in the United States, by Henry Ward Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher
87. The History of the Caliph Vathek, William Beckford
88. Past and Present, Thomas Carlyle
89. History of Friedrich the Second, Called Frederick the Great, Thomas Carlyle
90. History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4; 1883-1900, Susan B. Anthony
91. Don Juan
92. Constitution of the United States
93. Encyclopedia Britannica
94. English Bible

What do you think about the books in the personal library of Frederick Douglass?

 Samantha on the Race Problem My Opinions and Betsey Bobbet's Designed as a Beacon of Light to Guide Women to Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, But Which … Be Read by Members of the S The Scarlet Letter (Bantam Classics) But Yet a Woman, A Novel Tales of a Traveller Select pieces from the poems of William Wordsworth Little Ferns for Fanny's Little Friends (Classic Reprint) Little Ferns for Fanny's Little Friends (Classic Reprint)