About the Authors
Clayborne Carson, PhD, was a participant and observer of African American political movements during his undergraduate years at UCLA. Since receiving his doctorate in 1975, he has taught at Stanford University, where he is now professor of history and director of the King Papers Project. He has also been a visiting professor at American University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Emory University and a fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. His scholarly publications have focused on African American protest movements and the political thought of the period after World War II. His writings have appeared in leading historical journals and numerous encyclopedias, as well as in popular periodicals. His first book, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s, won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award of the Organization of American Historians. Dr. Carson has lectured at many colleges and universities in the United States and abroad on a wide range of topics, including King, Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, Black-Jewish relations, and the need for a multi-cultural curriculum.
Keith David is a classically trained actor, Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee. He stars, alongside Zoe Saldana, in the upcoming Netflix limited series “From Scratch.” Keith was featured in Jordan Peele’s latest film “Nope.” His expansive film credits include 21 Bridges, Night School, Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, Requiem for a Dream, Men at Work, They Live, Crash, There’s Something About Mary, The Thing, Platoon and many others. Keith completed 5 seasons starring in Greenleaf for Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network. Other TV credits include NCIS: New Orleans, Blackish, MacGyver, Fresh Off the Boat, Community, Enlisted, and Mister Rogers Neighborhood. Keith’s collaboration with Ken Burns earned him 3 Emmy Awards for his narration of Jackie Robinson, The War, and Unforgivable Blackness – The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson. Most recently, Keith narrated the documentary Ali by Ken Burns. Some of his other voice acting credits include Adventure Time, Bojack Horseman, Rick & Morty, Spawn, and Gargoyles. On Broadway, he starred in Seven Guitars and Jelly’s Last Jam (Tony nomination). As a singer Keith has toured for the past several years with Too Marvelous For Words, in which Keith recreates Nat King Cole. Keith is currently creating a show about legendary blues singer Joe Williams. Born and raised in New York City, Keith is a graduate of the New York High School of the Performing Arts and the Juilliard School.
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker and a washerwoman. As a young teenager, he became quite well known in Odense as a reciter of drama and as a singer. When he was fourteen, he set off for the capital, Copenhagen, determined to become a national success on the stage. He failed miserably, but made some influential friends in the capital who got him into school to remedy his lack of proper education. In 1829 his first book was published. After that, books came out at regular intervals. His stories began to be translated into English as early as 1846. Since then, numerous editions, and more recently Hollywood songs and Disney cartoons, have helped to ensure the continuing popularity of the stories in the English-speaking world.
About the Narrators
Bryan Kennedy was born and raised on Long Island and has been working as an actor and comedian in New York for the past several years. He has done numerous theater productions, voiceovers, commercials, and audiobooks.
James Langton, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and later as a musician at the Guildhall School in London. He has worked in radio, film, and television, also appearing in theater in England and on Broadway. He is also a professional musician who led the internationally renowned Pasadena Roof Orchestra from 1996 to 2002.