History is made of stories, and sometimes that history is personal, often told instead of printed. That is where this book about a part of Paul Robeson's life lies, in history passed on. This time, the author, Susan Robeson, his granddaughter, grew up hearing about the wonderful man her grandfather was. She certainly knew he was a great singer, learned early how the spirituals that made him famous came from his own father, an escaped slave. But the story that intrigued her was that he, one day, stopped a war.
In the late 1930s, Paul Robeson was living in London when war broke out in Spain. He was concerned and gave concerts with the proceeds going to help the victims of the war, especially the children who had lost their homes, were in dire need of food. It kept on, he kept singing, yet it didn't seem enough. He insisted he must go to Spain, to the front. Many thought it too dangerous, but he did go, and his wife with him. He went to the front and sang. On that day, no guns fired, no bombs dropped. He had stopped a war. Sadly, those who were fighting for Spain eventually lost to the general who was siding with Hitler.
Museum-like paintings by Rod Brown show this man who seemed larger than life, the scenes, too, enlarge the story with many details. There are the slaves of Robeson's father's time, the spread showing Robeson singing by a river with a riverboat floating by (his most famous song was "Old Man River), and the details of the Valencia oranges looking like "little suns" by the road to the front.
