American Histories

“A powerful assemblage of short stories exploring late-in-life angst through personal myth, cultural memory, and riffs on an empire scorched by its own hubris” from award-winning author John Edgar Wideman—his first collection in more than a decade.

In this singular collection, John Edgar Wideman blends the personal, historical, and political to invent complex, charged stories about love, death, struggle, and what we owe each other.

With characters ranging from everyday Americans to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Nat Turner, American Histories is a journey through time, experience, and the soul of our country.

In “JB & FD,” Wideman reimagines conversations between John Brown, the antislavery crusader, and Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and orator—conversations that produce a fantastical, rich correspondence that spans years and ideologies.

“Maps and Ledgers” eavesdrops on a brother and sister today as they ponder their father’s killing of another man.

“Williamsburg Bridge” sits inside a man sitting on a bridge who contemplates his life before he decides to jump.

“My Dead” is a story about how the already-departed demand more time, more space in the lives of those who survive them.

An extended meditation on family, history, and loss, American Histories weaves together historical fact, philosophical wisdom, and deeply personal vignettes.

This is Wideman at his best—emotionally precise and intellectually stimulating—an extraordinary collection by a master.