One of the most historical African-American novels, "The Hindered Hand" was written in 1905 by Sutton E. Griggs. During the time, Griggs published most of his own books as it was hard for him to find an audience. This novel was created as a response to Thomas Dixon's racial-baiting novel, "The Leopard's Spots."
John Cullen Gruesser, Ph.D., professor within the English department, co-edited "The Hindered Hand" with Hanna Wallinger and published this new edition with West Virginia University Press in 2017.
In celebration of his new publication, Gruesser will be having a book signing and reading at Kean University's Barnes and Noble located in the Green Lane Academic Building (GLAB). This event will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m.
Gathering information and putting the book together took about three to four years. In order to put this publication together, he made at least three trips to Nashville and one to Texas. He had a grant from the National Endowments For The Humanities to work on this scholarly edition from Sept. 2015 through Dec. 2016.
"Griggs was the most prolific African-American novelist at the turn of the twentieth century," said Gruesser. "He was unique--he was based in the south. He was a minister and he had his own publishing company. I think he's a significant figure and I wanted to make this author more visible. 'The Hindered Hand' was his most important novel."
Gruesser's areas of expertise are African American literature, American literature and detective fiction. He has taught courses such as African American women writers, American autobiography, American literature to and since 1860, colonial and postcolonial literature and theory, English composition, contemporary literature, critical approaches to literature, modern American novel, senior English seminar, world literature and writing about literature.
"Griggs's Nashville-based Orion Publishing Company brought out three printings of the book in 1905: a 303-page printing without illustrations, a 303-page printing with a cover image and fifteen inserted internal illustrations by the Kansas African American artist Robert E. Bell, and a 333-page printing with Bell’s cover image and internal artwork printed on integral leaves," according to Gruesser's informational website about the novel.
Gruesser received support from people in Nashville once they learned about his project. He encourages those who are interested to listen to Griggs's sermons that are on the website.
"He may have died in 1933, but you can still hear his voice," said Gruesser.
In addition to his five novels ['Imperium in Imperio,' 'Overshadowed,' 'Unfettered,' 'The Hindered Hand; Or, The Reign of the Repressionist' and 'Pointing the Way'], he published non-fiction works, both pamphlets and full-blown books.
"His career was more than just his [fiction] novels--but that is what he is most famous for," Gruesser added.
In addition to this publication of "The Hindered Hand," Gruesser plans to write a literary biography about Sutton E. Griggs. As of now, he has started compiling information about his life and created a timeline on his website.
Students, faculty and staff can find more information about this novel and Griggs himself on his website. Those who wish to purchase this book can find it online, through Amazon.com and the West Virginia Univeristy Press website.
