Carver, a Life in Poems

By Marilyn Nelson

Subjects: Reading Level-Grade 8, American poetry, Bildung, Südstaaten, History, Children's poetry, American, Noirs américains, Newbery Honor, Reading Level-Grade 9, Afro-American agriculturalists-Poetry, Agriculteurs noirs américains, Biographies, Poetry, American poetry (collections), 20th century, Sklaverei, African American agriculturists, Waisenkind, African Americans, Reading Level-Grade 11, Agriculturists, Reading Level-Grade 10, Reading Level-Grade 7, Auteurs noirs américains, Poésie américaine, Reading Level-Grade 12, Jugendbuch, Biografie

Description: George Washington Carver was born a slave in Missouri about 1864 and was raised by the childless white couple who had owned his mother. In 1877 he left home in search of an education, eventually earning a master's degree. In 1896, Booker T. Washington invited Carver to start the agricultural department at the all-black-staffed Tuskegee Institute, where he spent the rest of his life seeking solutions to the poverty among landless black farmers by developing new uses for soil-replenishing crops such as peanuts, cowpeas, and sweet potatoes. Carver's achievements as a botanist and inventor were balanced by his gifts as a painter, musician, and teacher. This Newbery Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book by Marilyn Nelson provides a compelling and revealing portrait of Carver's complex, richly interior, profoundly devout life.