Glory over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House(122)

My gratitude extends as well to everyone at Fletcher and Company, in particular to Melissa Chinchillo, Grainne Fox, and Rachel Crawford for their many successful efforts on my behalf.

Trish Todd, your insight is, as it was before, a benediction. Beth Thomas, how fortunate I am to have you with me a second time.

I thank my faithful first readers who didn’t stop at the first go-round: Charles Grissom, Eleanor Dolan, Diane Eckert, Carlene Baime, Bob Baime, Judy Chisholm, Ann Kwan, Leah Weiss, Teresa Morrow, and Reginald Brown. Your careful consideration and suggestions were exactly what I needed.

While I was researching the Great Dismal Swamp, two wonderful people came forward to help. Penny Leary, retired director of the Dismal Swamp Welcome Center, and George Ramsey, Southeast Representative for the Virginia Canals and Navigation Society, both provided, again and again, the detailed information that I sought. As well, they arranged a boat tour with Robert Peek, lock keeper and bridge tender, and the day we spent exploring the mysteries and waterways of the forbidding but fiercely spectacular Great Dismal Swamp is one I shall not forget. For those interested, Robert Peek offers boat tours to the public; you will find him at www.greatdismaladventures.com.

Pin-feather painting might be a lost art, but for Colin Woolf. To learn more about his amazing work, go to www.wildart.co.uk.

My research took me from libraries in Philadelphia to historical sites in Louisiana, and though they are too numerous to list here, I am indebted to all.

There were times when, in the writing of this story, I questioned my ability, but the doubt did not live long, for I was graced with the support of my lifelong friend Carlene and my dear daughter, Erin. Though they both know what they are to me, I thank them again.

Finally, I remember Lisbeth Walker, a dear friend who recently went before me. Her final message was one of gratitude, and it is in her memory that I list these many blessings.





Simon & Schuster Reading Group Guide Glory over Everything By Kathleen Grissom This reading group guide for Glory over Everything includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Kathleen Grissom. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.



Introduction



In the follow-up to her beloved novel, The Kitchen House, Kathleen Grissom returns to the riveting story of Jamie Pyke, the son of a black slave and a white plantation owner forced to flee his Virginia home to avoid being sold as a slave. Glory over Everything opens in Philadelphia in 1830, where Jamie now passes as the white Mr. James Burton, an artist and silversmith of renown. But when his lover, Caroline, finds herself pregnant, James fears that his years of deception will unravel with the birth of their child. In the meantime, James learns that slave catchers have abducted his young servant, Pan, the only son of Henry, the fugitive slave responsible for James’s safe passage to Philadelphia years before. Aware of his debt to Henry, and mourning Caroline’s tragic death in childbirth, James undertakes an odyssey to North Carolina to rescue Pan. With help from Sukey, a former Tall Oaks slave, and a series of Underground Railroad sympathizers, James must face up to his true identity and some of his greatest fears.



Topics & Questions for Discussion



1. “I had met Henry twenty years earlier, when, at the age of thirteen, I arrived in Philadelphia, ill and terrified and fleeing for my life.” How does James’s flight from Tall Oaks mark his life going forward? Why does Henry come to James’s aid, and what does he represent to James? What details from their early interactions complicate their relationship as adults?



2. “I had never and would never consider myself a Negro. In fact, the idea disgusted me.” How does James reconcile his biracial identity with his own racist attitudes? To what extent does his denial of his ethnicity serve as a means of self-preservation in the racist society he inhabits?



3. Why does Pan’s unexplained disappearance distress James? Compare and contrast the dangers from slave catchers that Pan and James face. Why do you think Kathleen Grissom chose to alternate these characters’ narratives at key points in the novel?



4. Why does James conceal his biracial status from Caroline Preston, the married daughter of socially prominent Philadelphia aristocrats? How does her pregnancy threaten James’s entire existence? How might Caroline’s discovery of his biracial status have altered the trajectory of the novel? Why do you think Kathleen Grissom chose not to pursue that storyline?



5. “‘I can provide [room and board] for you in my home, where you will be downstairs with our household help.’” As a newly minted apprentice at Burton’s Silversmith, why does James feel insulted to live below stairs with the black servants? How do Delia, Ed, and Robert react to having a white person living with them?



6. Describe James’s relationship with Mrs. Burton. What role does the bird Malcolm play in their bond? How is their connection strengthened by the tragedies they have experienced? How does James’s discovery of the Burtons’ views on slavery affect him?



7. From the reactions of his white and black acquaintances, how convincing are James’s efforts to pass as a white silversmith in Philadelphia? What does Delia’s theft of James’s letter in the aftermath of his adoption by the Burtons suggest about her intentions? What reasons might Delia have for outing James?