Larger Than Life
The Legend of Martin Delany
Sign In or Register Now to see if this title is available for request.
Buy on Bookshop.org Buy on WaterstonesSend NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 31 Jan 2027 | Archive Date 15 Mar 2027
Talking about this book? Use #LargerThanLifeYA #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
Martin Delany never set out to be a legend. He built a newspaper alongside Frederick Douglass, survived a cholera epidemic no one else would walk into, and told a superior officer that formerly enslaved families had a right to the land they'd worked their whole lives.
Told sideways, through four ordinary people changed by him at four turning points in American history — a grieving youth in cholera-stricken Pittsburgh, an apprentice caught between two great men's visions, a skeptic betting everything on a homeland across the ocean, a soldier chasing the rumor of a Black officer. None of them meet. All of them are changed by the same man.
Grounded in documented history: the triumphs are real, and so are the costs. A standalone YA historical novella — Book One in the Larger Than Life series, each volume built around an underserved figure in Black history.
A Note From the Publisher
Larger Than Life is the first book in a planned ten-volume YA historical fiction series, each centered on a different, underserved figure in Black history. Book Two (The Legend of Robert Smalls) is complete, tentatively launching June 2027. This title is also submitted for review consideration to Kirkus, BookLife/Publishers Weekly, Booklist, School Library Journal, and Foreword Reviews.
Advance Praise
"An ingenious novelistic account of Delany's consequential life from the point of view of various characters who interacted with him. Middleton's use of dramatic scenes compellingly situates Delany in nineteenth-century history. An impressive achievement."
— Robert S. Levine, editor of Martin R. Delany: A Documentary Reader
Marketing Plan
Larger Than Life: The Legend of Martin Delany is supported by a full trade review campaign: submissions to Kirkus Indie, Publishers Weekly/BookLife, Booklist, and School Library Journal, plus Foreword Reviews (placed in their "Writers of Color" themed Jan/Feb issue).
The book carries a launch blurb from Robert S. Levine, editor of Martin R. Delany: A Documentary Reader, with outreach ongoing to additional historians and scholars. It's listed with AALBC.com (African American Literature Book Club) and included in BiblioBoard's Indie New York collection for library discovery.
Full educator back matter — discussion guide, historical context, and a Curriculum Connections section aligned to both NY State and national standards — supports a planned school and library outreach campaign through New York's regional School Library Systems. The title is set to be entered for the current-cycle IPPY Awards and is fully registered in Books In Print with complete bibliographic metadata across paperback, hardcover, and ebook editions.
It's Book One of a planned ten-volume YA historical fiction series, each centered on a different underserved figure in Black history, with Book Two already complete and Book Three nearing completion.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781935702535 |
| PRICE | 14.99 |
| PAGES | 150 |