Although it can never really be measured, he may also have been, along with Mark Twain, the most widely traveled American public figure of his century…It is likely that more Americans heard Douglass speak than any other public figure of his times.  Indeed, to see or hear Douglass became a kind of wonder of the American world.  He struggled as well, with the pleasure and perils of fame as much as anyone else in his century, with the possible exceptions of General Ulysses S. Grant or P.T. Barnum.  Douglass’s dilemma with fame was a matter of decades, not merely of moments, and fraught with racism.

That is from the new David W. Blight biography of Douglass, outstanding in every way, appearing to rave reviews, and slated for the top tier of the year’s “Best of 2018” non-fiction list.