| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.3

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Mona Z. Smith. Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee. New York: Faber and Faber. 2004. Pp. xvii, 430. $27.00.

"All my life, see, I've been on the verge of something," said Canada Lee in 1941. As a young teenager from the San Juan Hill section of Manhattan, he had displayed natural talent for the violin, but classical music could never deliver him fame and fortune. He stole away to Saratoga and became a jockey, but horse racing in the 1920s offered few opportunities for African Americans. He returned to New York and picked up prizefighting, but a detached retina cut short his promising career. He opened nightclubs and led big bands in Harlem dancehalls, but swing virtuosos such as Duke Ellington outshone him. Finally, an almost chance audition in 1934 launched his career as a stage actor. Within two years he won a role in the Federal Theater Project's legendary all-black staging of Macbeth, directed by Orson Welles. By 1941 he was starring on Broadway in the stage version of Richard Wright's Native Son. "Now I've got it," said Lee. "Now I've got what I'm going to be" (p. 101).

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