Ishmael Reed’s acclaimed novel Flight to Canada is returning to readers with a new 50th anniversary edition from Scribner, introducing the groundbreaking work to a new generation while revisiting one of Reed’s most inventive examinations of race, slavery and American history.
The anniversary edition features a new foreword by Reed and a fresh introduction by author Victor LaValle. The reissue also comes with a new book jacket, giving the celebrated novel a refreshed presentation for contemporary readers.
Originally published in 1976, Flight to Canada follows Raven Quickskill, an enslaved poet who escapes from a Virginia plantation with two other enslaved people. While his companions are satisfied with reaching freedom partway, Quickskill is determined to make it all the way to Canada.
His escape sets off a pursuit by his enslaver, Arthur Swille, who is determined to reclaim him. But Reed’s novel quickly moves beyond the conventions of a traditional fugitive slave narrative.
Using satire, fantasy, historical references and high comedy, Reed creates an unconventional portrait of the Civil War era and the United States. In the novel, historical figures and modern cultural elements collide, creating intentionally surreal situations that challenge readers to reconsider how American history is remembered and represented.
Quickskill’s journey includes an extraordinary flight to Canada aboard a jumbo jet, while Abraham Lincoln appears in plantation settings and elements of modern television culture enter the world of the 19th century. Through these imaginative departures from historical realism, Reed examines the relationship between slavery, freedom, race and American mythology.
The result is a novel that uses humor and absurdity to explore serious questions about the nation’s past and its continuing influence on American life.
Reed is the author of more than 25 books and plays, including Mumbo Jumbo, Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down, Conjugating Hindi, Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico and The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda. His work has also extended into radio, television, music and publishing.
A longtime professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Reed spent more than three decades teaching at the university. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award. He has also been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was nominated for the National Book Award in two categories in the same year.
With its 50th anniversary edition, Flight to Canada continues Reed’s tradition of using satire and unconventional storytelling to examine American history and Black identity.
The new edition is available through Simon & Schuster.