A Most Perilous World

The stories of the four teenage children of prominent abolitionists before and during the Civil War combine to form a surprisingly familiar tapestry of struggle, disappointment, and ultimately hope.

Flowers in the Gutter author K. R. Gaddy's tells the story of America's tumultuous years leading up to the Civil War and of the war itself from the viewpoints of four children of famous abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. With meticulous research and dozens of primary documents, Gaddy crafts a surprisingly contemporary braided coming-of-age story. Each of these four young people-two white, two Black-is strongly committed to the cause of abolition but feels just as keenly a need to make their own names, away from the often over-protective or disapproving shadows of their famous parents. This is a story of a how a torch of resistance is passed and how a new generation makes its mark. K. R. Gaddy is a freelance writer and historian. Her previous work includes Flowers in the Gutter, which Kirkus praised as "an eye-opening account of tenacity that brings the efforts of young anti-Nazi activists vividly to life" in a starred review, and Well of Souls, which the Economist called "beguiling…Gaddy successfully blends archival skills with imagination." She received a Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Rubys Artist Grant for her writing and research. She lives in Baltimore.