A Miserable Revenge

George Newman, born to free Black parents in 1855, was only 21 or 22 when he wrote the novel, A Miserable Revenge: A Story of Life in Virginia. Newman’s granddaughter, Ruth Toliver, talks about the just-published novel with Virginia Humanities Center for the Book director Kalela Williams. Also: Mollie Godfrey and Brooks Hefner helped bring Newman’s fascinating novel into digital and print publication. Later in the show: The author of Becoming Belle da Costa-Green: A Visionary Librarian Through Her Letters recounts the accomplishments of the first Director of the fabulous Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. Deborah Parker says Belle da Costa-Green spent her life passing as white, even though she was the daughter of a prominent African American family.

You can listen to A Miserable Revenge online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

A Miserable Revenge is an episode from With Good Reason by Virginia Humanities.

This episode is 00:51:57 long.

This episode was published on Feb 12, 2026.

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