I'm sure everyone knows that the upcoming Steve McQueen film, Twelve Years A Slave, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, is based on a book of the same name, co-written by Solomon Northup, detailing his 12 years in captivity. I don't think I'm spoiling the story by saying that Northup was eventually a free man again, which officially happened on January 4, 1853 - 160 years ago, almost exactly. Today is the 12th of January, so we missed this by 8 days. But close enough. And to commemorate that glorious day in the man's life, an illustrated version of the book (with illustrations by Randy DeCuir) has been released. It was actually released just 2 days ago, January...
[view whole blog post ]