Henrietta Buckmaster
{{short description|American journalist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Henrietta Buckmaster
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Henrietta Delancey Henkle
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1909|3|10}}
| birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1983|4|26|1909|3|10}}
| death_place = Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, U.S.
| other_names = Henrietta Henkle Stephens
| occupation = Writer
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works = Let My People Go
Deep River{{cite web |title=Henrietta Buckmaster |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6446933/henrietta-buckmaster |website=Find a grave |accessdate=3 June 2020}}
| spouse = Peter John Stephens
}}
Henrietta Delancey Henkle (March 10, 1909 – April 26, 1983), better known by her pen name Henrietta Buckmaster, was an activist, journalist, and author best known for writing historical studies and novels.{{cite web |title=Buckmaster, Henrietta |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/buckmaster-henrietta |website=encyclopedia.com |accessdate=2 June 2020}} She was also active in the civil rights movement.
Biography
Buckmaster was born in Cleveland, Ohio{{cite web |title=Let My People Go The Story of the Underground Railroad and the Growth of the Abolitionist Movement |url=https://moore.sc.edu/uscpress/books/pre1993/9865.html |publisher=University of South Carolina press |accessdate=2 June 2020}} in 1909 to editor Rae D. Henkle and Pearl (Wintermute) Henkle and grew up in New York City. She attended Friends Seminary and the Brearley School.
Buckmaster became a journalist and author focusing on historical books and novels, as well as being a book reviewer for some time. A major theme of her books was human freedom, and her subjects were often American slaves and women. In 1944 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, for which she received a sponsorship from W.E.B. Du Bois.{{cite web |title=Letter from Henrietta Buckmaster to W. E. B. Du Bois, April 5, 1944 |url=https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b101-i452 |website=umass.edu |publisher=UMass Amherst |accessdate=4 June 2020}} Her most well known book, Let My People Go, focused on the Underground Railroad and the Abolition movement.{{cite journal |last1=Reddick |first1=L. D. |title=Henrietta Buckmaster, Let My People Go; the Story of the Underground Railroad... |journal=The Journal of African American History |date=1 April 1941 |volume=26 |issue=2 |page=256}} Her writing was praised for "without departing from fact" being "as dramatic as it is informative."{{cite news |title=Henrietta Buckmaster, a distinguished author of books for both children and adults, projects in her history of the.... |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/henrietta-buckmaster-5/flight-to-freedom-4/ |accessdate=3 June 2020 |publisher=Kirkus Reviews |date=1 August 1958}} She combined scholarship with the "concern of the civil libertarian."
Buckmaster was also involved in the civil-rights movement, as well as fighting for the rights of American Indians and prisoners.{{cite news |title=HENRIETTA BUCKMASTER, 74, WAS A NOVELIST AND EDITOR |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/27/obituaries/henrietta-buckmaster-74-was-a-novelist-and-editor.html |work=New York Times |date=27 April 1983}} She played a role as one of the leaders of The Committee for Equal Justice.McGuire, Danielle L. At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power New York: Vintage Books, 2011. p. 26.
Personal life
She was briefly married to Peter John Stephens, and wrote under the name Henrietta Henkle Stephens. She died in 1983 after a short illness at 74.
Partial list of published works
- Tomorrow Is Another Day (1934)
- His End Was His Beginning (1936)
- [https://archive.org/details/letmypeoplegosto00buck Let My People Go] (1941)
- Deep River (1944)
- Fire in the Heart (1948)
- Bread from Heaven (1952)
- And Walk in Love (1956)
- Lucy and Loki (1958)
- [https://archive.org/details/flighttofreedoms00buck Flight to Freedom] (1958)
- All the Living (1962)
- Walter Raleigh: Man of Two Worlds (1964)
- Paul: A Man Who Changed the World (1965)
- [https://archive.org/details/freedombound00buck Freedom Bound] (1965)
- [https://archive.org/details/seminolewars0000buck The Seminole Wars] (1966)
- [https://archive.org/details/womenwhoshapedhi00buck Women Who Shaped History] (1966)
- The Lion in the Stone (1968)
- [https://archive.org/details/fightingcongress0000buck The Fighting Congressmen: Thaddeus Stevens, Hiram Revels, James Rapier, Blanche K. Bruce] (1971)
- [https://archive.org/details/walkingtrip00buck The Walking Trip] (1972)
- [https://archive.org/details/waituntilevening00buck Wait Until Evening] (1974)
References
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Category:Friends Seminary alumni
Category:Brearley School alumni
Category:Journalists from Ohio
Category:Activists for African-American civil rights
Category:American civil rights activists