Published in 1904, three years before his death, Conway's Autobiography is a peaceful and introspective account of a compelling life. Born to a slave-owning Methodist family in Virginia, Conway (1832 1907) turned away from his roots to become a proponent of anti-slavery, free religion, reform and women's suffrage. Observing and becoming involved in the developments of late nineteenth-century religious, political, scientific, literary and artistic thought, he formed friendships with central figures of the age, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thomas Carlyle, which feature in the work alongside...