“I’ve left behind my comfort zone of knowledge and really branched out into new fields. Thank you, Amherst, for letting me do that.” Martha Sandweiss, Professor of American Studies and History at Amherst College, released her new book, “Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line,” at Robert Frost Library last Thursday. Hers was the first in a new series of Amherst faculty book launches that will be held at Frost instead of an off-campus bookstore.

Professor Sandweiss, who has taught a freshman seminar at Amherst about biographical historical writing for several years, has already received critical notice for her biography of Clarence King, a man who led a double life as a successful, single white explorer, geologist and writer and a married black Pullman porter and steel worker.

After discovering the story of King’s secret identity through census records, Sandweiss spent about four years researching the story. King’s story is so intriguing because “passing [usually] involves moving toward privilege. King is unusual because he moved away from privilege. King is certainly the only public figure in American history who has ever tried to pull anything like this off.” Sandweiss uses his story to examine larger issues of race and class.

In her First Year Seminar, called “Telling Lives,” Sandweiss’s students read both biography and memoir and pursue their own research into the life of a person based on census records. Exploring various strategies for coping with limited source material and new research methods along with the class, Sandweiss perfected her biographical techniques. “[Students] helped me see what sorts of strategies worked and which didn’t; which sorts of biographies seemed to resonate beyond a small focused story and which did not,” she said.

Many challenges accompany writing an accurate biography based on limited sources. Since King tried to conceal his second identity, he destroyed letters from his wife; very little evidence remains about her life. Sandweiss reflected, “There were certainly many moments where I really longed to be a novelist, to be omniscient.” However, she had to use informed speculation to fill in the gaps in the story.

According to Michael Kasper, the Reference and Collection Development Coordinator for Frost Library, around 60 people attended the book launch. He noted the extremely positive response to the event; the attendees included Amherst faculty members, students at the College and members of the community.

Professor Sandweiss, who has taught at the College for twenty years, is currently on a book tour and will be teaching at Princeton University in the fall.