Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot

Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot is the most recent of several biographies of noteworthy African American Benjamin Banneker. Banneker, born in 1731 in rural Maryland (in what would become the small mill town of Oella) and the descendent of slaves, would soon demonstrate extraordinary mathematical and analytical abilities. He had a photographic memory and would hone an elegant writing style on a par with the finest writers of his day. (The author compares Banneker to Benjamin Franklin.) His bestseller, Banneker's Almanac, was first published in 1791 and celebrated for its accuracy of the celestial movements and the extraordinarily fine prose and poetry. As a surveyor, he participated in the planning of the young nation's capital.

Banneker's most remarkable achievements, however, were in the field of astronomy where he predicted that other stars were circled by potentially inhabitable planets and also speculated about light and the relative nature of time, anticipating Albert Einstein's thinking by more than one hundred years. He has been honored with a wall mural (shown surveying with Major Ellicott) and a U.S. Postal Service stamp issued in 1980. Engagingly written, this informative biography reveals the multi-faceted, multi-talented man that was Benjamin Banneker.