A few of his titles from a long career:
Bridging the Hudson: The Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge and it Connecting Rail Lines (2001) is a topic that shows Mabee's fondness for upstate New York. He was an academic at SUNY New Palz for many years.
Carlton Mabee's, The American Leonardo: The Life of Samuel P. B. Morse is the 1944 book that won a Pulitzer for Mabee. It grew out of his doctoral dissertation at Columbia University (under Allan Nevins).
Sojourner Truth: Slave, Prophet, Legend (1993) is Carleton Mabee's account of this articulate and charismatic abolitionist and women's rights campaigner. His daughter co-wrote the book. Again a region Mabee was familiar with features largely in this book. Sojourner Truth had four owners, all in New York state, when slavery was still legal there. John Dumont bought her when she was 13. She recalled that John Dumont was a kind owner, in her memoirs " The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave.(1850). In Mabee's retelling:
The most severe whipping Dumont ever gave her..., was when she had tormented a cat. Although sometimes she considered slavery cruel and prayed to god to kill all whites,...at other times she believed slavery right, adored Dumont and confused him with God.
Charity in Travail: Two Orphan Asylums for Blacks (1974).
His Washington Post obituary highlights another common feature in his subjects: his sympathy for the downtrodden. They write:
He was classified as a conscientious objector during World War II and performed civilian public service work, including a stint as an attendant in mental hospitals. He quit one of his first teaching jobs over his sharp dissent with the college’s administration over the purging of faculty for holding left-wing political beliefs.
His parents were missionaries in China, and Carleton Mabee was born in Shanghai.
Charity in Travail: Two Orphan Asylums for Blacks (1974).
His Washington Post obituary highlights another common feature in his subjects: his sympathy for the downtrodden. They write:
He was classified as a conscientious objector during World War II and performed civilian public service work, including a stint as an attendant in mental hospitals. He quit one of his first teaching jobs over his sharp dissent with the college’s administration over the purging of faculty for holding left-wing political beliefs.
His parents were missionaries in China, and Carleton Mabee was born in Shanghai.
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