★ 08/27/2018
Bestseller Carter (Back Channel) narrates the life story of his exceptional grandmother, Eunice Carter, an African-American attorney who masterminded the sting operation that resulted in the imprisonment of mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano. Eunice Carter graduated from Smith College cum laude with a bachelor’s and master’s in just four years, and went on to attend Fordham Law before being employed by the future governor of New York and Republican presidential nominee Thomas Dewey. Working under Dewey, Eunice spearheaded the investigation that proved the mob was running New York City’s brothels and helped flip the witnesses that specified Luciano’s involvement. For years after, however, Dewey repeatedly passed her over when making appointments. The author provides fascinating analysis on this time in history in which most African-Americans moved from voting Republican to Democrat, leaving conservatives like his grandmother and Dewey out in the cold. Carter also provides background on Eunice’s parents, both renowned African-American rights activists; explores her tense relationship with her brother, whose Communist ties very likely hindered her success; and discusses her less-than-ideal marriage. And he evokes her Harlem, where “women wore fancy hats. Men wore colorful suits.... In the clubs, jazz combos played... the rising black bourgeoisie flourished.” Carter’s enthusiasm for his grandmother’s incredible fortitude despite numerous setbacks is contagious; Eunice Carter’s story is another hidden gem of African-American history. Photos. (Oct.)
A 2019 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominee
“A vivid portrait of a remarkable woman.”—Kirkus Reviews
“With artful storytelling and a narrative-like delivery, Carter tells Eunice's story in the best way possible, offering a compelling, unputdownable read with as much value in social history as legal appeal. Not to be missed.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“Carter’s enthusiasm for his grandmother’s incredible fortitude despite numerous setbacks is contagious; Eunice Carter’s story is another hidden gem of African-American history.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Invisible is not only a personal restoration project; it’s the reclamation of a key figure in recent American history. . . . Stephen L. Carter has revived his grandmother’s voice when we most need it, and with utmost urgency.” —Sarah Weinman, The New York Times Book Review
“[An] engaging biography. . . . [Eunice’s] lifelong ‘determination to rise’ makes for a moving paean to female aspiration.” —The New Yorker
“Riveting . . . Remind[s] us of the deep paradoxes of segregation.”—The Washington Post
“Just a few pages into this engaging, inspiring biography, one question unavoidably comes to mind: Who will play her in the film? … His talent honed as a fiction writer (The Emperor of Ocean Park, among his novels), Carter brings to life the era when Eunice Carter faced formidable discrimination…forging ahead all the while to see that justice was done.”—National Book Review
“Stephen L. Carter. . . is at it again. . . . While Carter the professor steadily guides readers toward Eunice’s work in the Luciano trial, and the jury’s eventual conviction of Luciano and his associates on nearly all counts, the heir to his grandmother’s legacy shows us that he takes no small measure of joy in weaving a detailed quilt of family history that gets us there.”—National Law Journal
“Carter's narrative reads at times like a legal thriller, as he traces the ins and outs of the case against Luciano and other high-profile cases Eunice later handled… Meticulously researched and compelling, Invisible is at once a fascinating slice of New York legal and racial history and a thoughtful portrayal of a woman who refused to be hidden.”—Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“Moving, haunting, and written with dazzling power, Invisible tells the story of a woman who often found her path blocked by the social and political expectations of the age.”—African American Literature Book Club
“Compelling . . . Utilizing his superb storytelling talent, [Carter] brings Eunice to life. . . . Impressive scholarship.”—New York Law Journal
“In this haunting and powerful biography, Stephen Carter tells the astonishing story of his grandmother, a brilliant African-American lawyer who struggled with prejudice and personal tragedies. It is a riveting and moving story, one with enormous resonance for our own time.”—Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Leonardo Da Vinci and Steve Jobs
“A black female lawyer in the 1930s whose legal strategy helped put away Lucky Luciano and who became a protégée of Thomas Dewey — Eunice Hunton Carter led a life that seems almost fantastical. Yet she lived and did all these things and much more. Stephen L. Carter tells his grandmother’s story with a clear eye and clear prose to match. This fascinating work reintroduces us to the life of a once-famous woman who should never have been forgotten.”—Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello
“Page after page of surprises. Revealed is an incredible family story — hidden until now — about black people with intellect and grit. Oh, and this is also a new window on American history. Stephen Carter's strong skills as a novelist are evident in this powerful biography.”—Juan Williams, author of Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary
This is a listen you’d be forgiven for thinking is a work of fiction. As narrated by Karen Chilton, the real-life story of Manhattan District Attorney Eunice Carter is remarkable—both in its telling and in its history. Carter was an activist, an attorney, and one of the most notable women of her time, a time when few women worked outside the home, let alone became professionals. Perhaps most remarkable of all is that Carter was African-American (and the grandmother of the book’s author). Knowing all of this, it may not be surprising that her role in taking down the most notorious mobster of the 1930s, “Lucky” Luciano, is not a well-known story. But listening to Chilton’s narration, you’ll be enthralled with the author’s research and his grandmother’s amazing life. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2018-07-16
An accomplished and determined woman transcended racial barriers to rise to prominence.Carter (Law/Yale Univ.; Back Channel: A Novel, etc.), former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, celebrates the life of his grandmother, Eunice Hunton Carter (1899-1970), who forged an astonishing legal career that included successfully prosecuting mobster Lucky Luciano. At the age of 8, Eunice told a young friend that she wanted to become a lawyer "to make sure the bad people went to jail." Two decades later, she acted on that desire. After graduating with degrees from Smith College, a married mother of a 2-year-old son enmeshed in the social whirl of upper-society Harlem, she realized that she was thoroughly bored. She enrolled at Fordham Law School, one of the few that admitted women and blacks, and earned a law degree in 1932. Two years later, the GOP tapped her to run for New York state assembly against the Democratic incumbent: "Black and female, conservative and brilliant, charming and charismatic," she seemed the perfect candidate. Although she lost that race, the campaign gave her visibility, and soon Mayor Fiorello La Guardia appointed her to a special commission to investigate rioting and unrest that had erupted in Harlem. Her career took off in 1935, when Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey hired her to join his team investigating mob activities in New York. It was, writes Carter, "the job every young lawyer wanted." Eunice became Dewey's staunch supporter, campaigning for him when he ran for Manhattan district attorney, New York governor, and president against Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Yet he always picked others to fill important appointments. Nevertheless, Eunice's many social and political activities earned her widespread admiration. Carter places Eunice's experiences in the context of American culture, politics, and her own family: her activist mother; her defiant brother, whose Communist Party membership, Eunice believed, threatened her career; and her son (the author's father). Eunice could be imperious, "judgmental and often dismissive," impatient and aloof. Quitting, the author writes, "was not in her nature."A vivid portrait of a remarkable woman.
