Passing Strange

As most of you know or have at least guessed by now, I am typically a fiction reader. I read non-fiction rarely and if I do it's usually memoirs, but after hearing a segment on NPR, I eagerly picked up Passing Strange by Martha Sandweiss.

Passing Strange tells the story of Clarence King who was a successful geologist at the end of the 19th century but who eventually began to pass as a black man and married Ada Copeland, a black woman. Clarence took on the name James Todd and the profession of a Pullman porter (who were only black men) when he married Ada. Clarence/James never told any of his friends or close confidants of his marriage and subsequent marriage. Everyone assumed Clarence was a lifelong bachelor.

Sandweiss does a good job of retelling Clarence King's story - his success as a geologist, his travels West, his financial troubles and surmising how he managed to live a double life. Ada Copeland Todd was harder to construct. Most likely a child born into slavery, there is no historical record of her until her early 20s. Once she married Clarence King, there is evidence of her children and various homes.

Sandweiss weaves the two stories together effectively and it's clear that she is a dedicated researcher. Like with most non-fiction, I was left wanting to know more about the why and what they felt, but without historical evidence, there is no way to know how Clarence and Ada lived when they were together.