Harrisonburg educator and author George Newman’s novel was published over a century after it was originally written. Now, his work is being brought to life in a staged reading at the Virginia Festival of the Book. WMRA’s Kate Bean reports.
This weekend in Charlottesville the 32nd annual Virginia Festival of the Book will celebrate literature connected to the theme of revolutions. One of the novels being highlighted is “A Miserable Revenge: A Story of Life in Virginia,” written by George Newman. The novel, originally written in the late 1870s, will be brought to life in a staged reading directed by Leslie M. Scott-Jones. Born a free man in Winchester, Newman went on to become a leader and educator in Harrisonburg’s African American community.
Kalela Williams, the director of the Virginia Center for the Book, attended a symposium at James Madison University last year when “A Miserable Revenge” was published for the first time. Williams was incredibly moved by the event.
KALELA WILLIAMS: George Newman is a revolutionary figure … because during this time period he sat down and penned a whole manuscript and left it for his descendants to find and that’s pretty incredible. Not to mention the work that he did during his lifetime aside from writing the manuscript. Being an educator, being a businessman, owning property, these were revolutionary acts for a Black man in the 1870s.
In order for Newman to receive an education early on in life he was apprenticed to a white family who taught him the basics of reading, writing, and math. Newman continued his education in Washington, D.C. and by his early twenties, he was principal of the Effinger Street School in Harrisonburg. Outside of his career in education, Newman served as a U.S. marshal during the prohibition era, owned an insurance company, and was a minister and civic leader. It was between his time as an educator and a U.S. marshal that he began writing “A Miserable Revenge.”
The novel is inspired by real elements of Newman’s life growing up as an apprentice in the 1840s and as a community leader post-Civil War. The story is set in the antebellum period and features a complex web of characters who find themselves caught up in a chain of betrayal and corruption.
The handwritten manuscript was rediscovered by Newman’s granddaughter Ruth Toliver who brought it to Tiffany Cole on the James Madison University Special Collections team.
RUTH TOLIVER: I’d read a bit and I’d go “oh my goodness this is unbelievable,” you know, “I don’t believe this,” and I’d say to myself, “this was a man who was basically self taught.” And I just wondered how and where, and was he born with this innate intelligence and I came to the conclusion yes, yes. … I kind of thought to myself it needs to be published and that stayed in my mind for a long time because I didn’t know what to do with it.
Toliver’s intention in bringing the manuscript to JMU was simply to have it preserved digitally. Cole reached out to Dr. Mollie Godfrey, director of graduate studies, to help with the project.
DR. MOLLIE GODFREY: We reached right out to Ruth and asked her if she was comfortable with us getting them transcribed, she was thrilled. … It was just really important to me that at every step in that process we checked in with her, made sure that what we were doing was what she wanted and what the rest of her family wanted.
Newman’s manuscript makes literary history as the earliest known example of a “white life” novel – one written by a Black author that centralizes white characters and storylines. Godfrey says scholars believe Black authors typically wrote “white life” stories to “make social critiques, or to create within mainstream genres they are otherwise excluded from.”
GODFREY: Newman’s novel is really fascinating because it precedes all of these other “white life” novels by 15 years. … His relationship to the genre is a little ambiguous. There’s definitely evidence that he is critiquing white society and the white south in this novel. But there’s also some suggestion that he is trying to write himself into what were quite popular genres for white authors and white readers at the time. He’s kind of writing himself into a western, and a mystery and a detective novel, and plantation fiction.
The production of Newman’s novel became an extensive project involving JMU English students. The manuscript wasn’t dated, but Newman’s handwriting gave insight to what years the novel was likely written when compared to his 1877 essay “An Essay on Truth”. The transcription was mainly completed by graduate students Evan Sizemore and Jeslyn Pool who navigated challenges ranging from grammar mistakes to missing or torn pages. One of these torn pages includes the final page of the story leaving the complete ending unknown.
Virginia Humanities provided two separate grants to fund the transcription and printing of the novel. Another grant awarded by the JMU College of Arts and Letters funded the undergraduate-created companion website and the symposium. JMU also worked with the Dallard-Newman House, Newtown Cemetery Trustees, and Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project for last year’s symposium. Toliver attended to share her grandfather’s story and sign copies.
TOLIVER: I cried. When I got a copy of it, I just cried. I thought, you know, I only wish that he could see his work in print. Of his grandchildren I’m the only living grandchild, now there are some great grandchildren and some great greats.
Toliver was 11 years old when her grandfather passed away, and this novel has helped her feel closer to him. She remembers him fondly as a well respected, caring, and intelligent man from the summers she spent with her grandparents in Harrisonburg. Much of his love was displayed in a beautiful garden he built just for her and her sister to play in and explore.
TOLIVER: I do remember his laugh and if something was funny he just let go and laughed about it. … There was just something about him that drew me to him. He was just a wonderful person, and you know for a child to think of an adult as being wonderful there was something very special about him. …I’ve got chills running through me just thinking of him as a person and realizing he had space in that garden for my sister and me. He had an impact on me that I’ll keep forever.
On March 21, Toliver will get the opportunity to see her grandfather’s words be brought to life in a staged reading.
Leslie M. Scott-Jones is directing the project.
LESLIE M. SCOTT-JONES: It sounded really cool to have a book that was originally lost be found again, and then published. That's amazing. And to be a part of presenting that to the public is a real honor.
In adapting the novel to a script she was committed to preserving as much of the original writing as possible.
SCOTT-JONES: I wanted something that showed how this little microcosm of a community worked. Like what were the rules of engagement for everyone?... I also wanted to try and bring as much of his voice into the present as possible... As a narrator he’s very tongue in cheek about a lot of things.
The staged reading will be performed this Saturday in Charlottesville at the CODE auditorium at 4 p.m. Registration is free and available on the Virginia Festival of the Book’s website.
