Donna Clovis of West Windsor has written “Quantum Leaps in Princeton’s Place.” The book recounts stories of Princeton in the early 1900s to the late 1950s through the eyes of two of the oldest citizens by means of interviews, diaries, and articles. She will have a booksigning at High School North on Tuesday, June 2.
A teacher of language art and Shakespeare for juniors at High School North, she is also a professor of gender and race at Marymount Manhattan College. Clovis has a master’s degree from NYU and a doctorate from Columbia University’s Teacher’s College.
“I wanted to find out how much knowledge existed among the elderly,” Clovis writes in the book’s forward. “I looked up the oldest living man and woman in Princeton at the time. I got in touch with them and asked them for an interview. The woman was 100 years old. The man was 103. Both were African American. I started to document their lives. Their interviews took six months.”
She also met with the owner of a mansion on Rosedale Road in Princeton, who told her that the house has four floors and the top floors had been used as slave or maid quarters. The owner shared three boxes of photos from the 1900s and a journal written by the first owner of the house. When Clovis asked her subjects if they knew about the house, the woman told her that she was raised in the house and had served as a maid.
Clovis was invited to write her book in the house. “I sat in the mansion from the garden and wrote. Another day, I sat in one of the parlors. Another day, I wrote from the slave quarters.”
Originally self published as “Plantation” in 2000, she renamed the book to reflect on being in the right place at the right time. The book is available at amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.
Author Event, High School North, 90 Grovers Mill Road, Plainsboro. Tuesday, June 2, 10:50 a.m. Donna Clovis, author of “Quantum Leaps in Princeton’s Place.” 609-716-5100.
