Over a century after his death, Frederick Douglass is known to the world primarily through the words that he wrote? the texts of the speeches he delivered, the articles he wrote for newspapers, his correspondence with family, friends, colleagues and an impressive array of national and international figures, and, most significantly, through his three autobiographies: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written By Himself (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881). These books are firmly established in the cannon of the American literary tradition, and the Narrative, particularly, is frequently included in high school and college literature and history courses.