Autographed Hardcover Copies of My Book are Here

Order your autographed copy of The Doll Blogs today.

The Doll Blogs When Dolls Speak I Listen, autographed, hardcover, second edition is available to purchase now on a first-come, first-served basis from me. When my copies sell out, I may or may not order additional copies. Get yours from me, now.

The book is $49.95 plus shipping based on your zip code or other location if purchased from me through this blog post. Paypal is the accepted online payment or mailed money order. 

If you'd like to purchase an autographed copy of the second edition of The Doll Blogs When Dolls Speak I Listen, click or tap the email button below to send an email for purchasing specifics. 

Thank you in advance for your support and happy reading!

Both hard and softcover versions of The Doll Blogs #ad can be purchased on Amazon at any time. The retail-priced Amazon copies are not autographed. While quantities last, my remaining autographed author copies that have minor cover imperfections may be purchased on Amazon by selecting the "1 used from $47.95" link. The autographed author copies are, however, not used. 

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.

__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.

If you're not already a subscriber, visit, "like" and follow the Black Doll Collecting Facebook page or bookmark the Black Doll Collecting home page and visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays when typically new posts are published.

Check out what I am selling here. 
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
*New*Visit/Follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!

Book News

In late February/early March, one of my group members informed me of the doll journals she has created which are sold on Amazon. During our chat, I also discovered that she is a romance novelist. Shea Swain has written several romance novels that are also available on Amazon (through Kindle Direct Publishing) and other sites. Before I share the links to Shea's publications, I want to share some exciting news. 

During my chat with Shea, I asked several questions about Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for the possibility of having my third book, The Doll Blogs When Dolls Speak I Listen, reprinted as a paperback. Shea kindly walked me through the process and within a week, I revised my book, updated the back cover, and submitted it to KDP where it is now available to order! 

The Doll Blogs When Dolls Speak I Listen was offered as the first electronic book that features dolls that blog and shortly afterward as an ultra-limited paperback which sold out (as most printed books about Black dolls do) immediately! It has remained as an electronic book on Google Play and in the Kindle store. The ebook version has sold well, but it is the general consensus of most book lovers that they prefer to hold books in their hands. For those readers, The Doll Blogs can now be held (again or for the first time as a paperback or hardcover book as the stories told by each doll about their timeless experiences with their human, me, over a two-year period are enjoyed. 

Book Details

Written for entertainment and pleasure, The Doll Blogs can also encourage junior collectors to appreciate dolls beyond play, and it offers tips on doll documentation.  I hope you will support and enjoy the second-edition printed versions of The Doll Blogs When Dolls Speak I Listen. 

Depending on your browser, on Amazon, the Kindle, the paperback, and hardcover versions of The Doll Blogs might be listed on the same page. You'll have to choose the desired version. 

>Buy the softcover here.

>Buy the hardcover here.

The hardcover and softcover second editions of The Doll Blogs When Dolls Speak I Listen are shown above.

I will have a few hardcover copies to autograph and sell directly. If you would like to purchase an autographed copy directly from me, please send me an email to place your order with your name and mailing address so actual postage can be calculated. 

IMPORTANT: When purchasing the softcover or hardcover books directly from Amazon, check the option, "This order contains a gift." This might ensure that the book is shipped in a box to avoid any cover creases that might occur if the book is shipped in a padded envelope. 

The spines of the softcover and hardcover of The Doll Blogs When Dolls Speak I Listen are illustrated above.

Below are links to Shea Swain's journals, romance novels, and her website. I read and enjoyed Absolve. Please support her, too. Thank you in advance.

Shea Swain's Bias Journals

Shea Swain's Romance Novels

Shea Swain's website

dbg


There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.

If you're not already a subscriber, visit, "like" and follow the Black Doll Collecting Facebook page or bookmark the Black Doll Collecting home page and visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays when typically new posts are published.

Check out what I am selling here. 
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
*New*Visit/Follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!

The Doll Blogs on Kindle

My third book, The Doll Blogs, When Dolls Speak I Listen, is now available as a Kindle eBook at the following link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087V6PN37/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=debbie+garrett&qid=1588191816&sr=8-4

It has been available as an eBook in the Google Play Store for quite some time. I recently decided to publish it as a Kindle book, which can be read on Kindle devices or on other devices (including PCs) using the appropriate free Kindle app.

dbg


There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for following, commenting, and sharing using the share button below.

Check out what I am selling here. 
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!

The Doll Griot

Before leaving for Senegal in September 2013, fellow doll enthusiast and educator, Paulette Richards, Ph.D. wrote a glowing and most impressive review of my three books written on the subject of collecting black dolls.   Richards' review, which compares my doll research to the research of two historians of African American history, was too lengthy to post on Amazon.com; therefore, she sent it directly to me.  I posted the review in its entirety on my Facebook Page:  Debbie Behan Garrett, Black Doll Enthusiast a few weeks ago.  Paulette will be a guest blogger later this week.  I thought this would be an opportune time to post the review here.  Thank you again, Paulette, I remain grateful and forever honored.

The Doll Griot
By Paulette Richards, Ph.D.

Debbie Behan Garrett grew up during the era of the Civil Rights movement when African Americans vehemently rejected the stereotypical images of blacks that had long pervaded American mass media. Rather than purchase dolls that perpetuated negative stereotypes of blacks, Garrett’s mother provided only white dolls for her children. Yet young Debbie keenly felt the lack of “dolls that look like me.” In the early 1990s after her own daughter had “outgrown” dolls, Garrett was consumed with a passion for collecting and documenting black dolls. This passion launched her on a trajectory similar to two African American historians of the early twentieth century – Arturo Schomburg, and J.A. Rogers.

“Blacks have no history. There are no black heroes. Black people have accomplished nothing, have contributed nothing to the advancement of human civilization…” Like many students subjected to the routine “miseducation of the Negro,” Arturo Schomburg (1874-1938) heard myths like these when he was a schoolboy in Puerto Rico. Schomburg, however, vowed to prove his teachers wrong. Although he did not follow a traditional academic career like W.E. B. DuBois, he dedicated his life to the study of Afro-Latin and African American history. In 1911 he co-founded the Negro Society for Historical Research. By this time, however, Schomburg had already amassed a large collection of books and artifacts documenting African diasporan culture and history.

Schomburg united scholars from Africa, the West Indies, and the U.S. in the study of African diasporan culture and history. Meanwhile, his collections continued to grow. Although he worked in modestly paid clerical jobs and had five sons to support, the New York Public Library paid $10,000 for his collection of books and materials in 1926. The collection was initially housed in the 135th Street (Harlem) branch of the library and Schomburg was appointed curator of “the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art.”

Schomburg’s obsessive pursuit of books by and about people of African descent may have seemed crazy to some, but his collection formed the basis of the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Similarly, while Garrett’s obsessive acquisition of black dolls may seem irrational to non-doll lovers, her dedication to celebrating the beauty of black dolls echoes Schomburg and Rogers’ determination to destroy myths of racial inferiority.

Garrett published her first book, The Definitive Guide to Collecting Black Dolls with Hobby House Press in 2003. This 176 page soft cover volume catalogues each doll with information on the artist and/ or manufacturer, the material, height, identifying marks, descriptions of the hair/eyes/ mouth, clothing and an estimated value. Then, following in the footsteps of J.A. Rogers, Garrett self-published her second book in 2008.

Joel August Rogers was born in Jamaica in 1880. Although they could not afford to provide much education for their eleven children, Rogers internalized the strong value his parents placed on learning and devoted his life to researching and disseminating as much information as he could about the history of black people. By 1906 he was living in Harlem. Later he took a job as a Pullman porter, which allowed him to comb libraries all over the country. Over the course of his life he also traveled extensively overseas, sifting “the bran of history” as he called it for nuggets of information about the historical experience of black people. Although Rogers was self-educated, self-financed, and self-published, his books eventually earned respect from academic historians. For example W.E.B. Dubois observed that "No man living has revealed so many important facts about the Negro race as has Rogers." Similarly, Garrett’s years of dedicated research and publication have earned her recognition in The New York Times and other prestigious publications as an authority on black dolls. (“The Dolls I Never Had as a Child”)

Like most of Rogers’ works, Garrett’s 450 page volume on Black Dolls: A Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating, Collecting, and Experiencing the Passion is lavishly illustrated. Full color photographs carefully document each doll. Garrett’s collection runs the gamut of materials (bisque, celluloid, composition, rubber, hard plastic, and cloth), aesthetics (artist dolls, craft dolls, manufactured play dolls), and genres such as fashion dolls, paper dolls, and celebrity portrait dolls. Since dolls are usually viewed only as toys for little girls, the “bran” that Garrett sifts might seem even more marginal than the records Schomburg and Rogers searched for evidence about black experience. Further, the bulk of Garrett’s collection consists of manufactured dolls rather than one of a kind dolls and includes play line dolls as well as artist dolls produced in limited editions. Yet, as a record of how the larger society has viewed and represented people of color, her eclectic collection probably has more value than it would if she focused only on art dolls created by black artists as more authentic self-representations.

In traditional West African societies, griots were oral historians who preserved the lineage and noble deeds of their communities. As latter day griots in a time when much of the academic establishment still subscribed to Hegel’s idea that “Africa has no history,” Schomburg and Rogers documented “who we are and where we come from.” Although women rarely served as griots in traditional African societies, in her third book, The Doll Blogs Garrett answers the fundamental questions griots are most concerned with – “Who are your people and where do you come from?” Through her meticulous research into the provenance of each doll, she provides information about the artists who sculpted the dolls, the manufacturers who produced them, the retailers that sold them, and sometimes even includes tidbits about previous owners. Anyone who has done genealogical research would be overjoyed to uncover such detailed information about the African American branches of their family tree for even when there is an oral tradition and/ or paper trail that enables us to trace our ancestors back to the time of slavery, the trail usually goes stone cold on the shores of the Atlantic.

The barracoons that dotted the west coast of Africa from the 16th – 19th centuries transformed human beings into commodities and erased their personal histories. While DNA typing can now take us further into the interior of the Mother Continent and indicate regions where our enslaved ancestors might have come from, it can’t recover the stories of how various individuals met and combined those strands of DNA. The ritual acquisition of black dolls that plays out on every page of The Doll Blogs often occurs through auctions, a scene that is fraught with the painful legacy of slavery and the forced separation of families on the block. Yet Garrett’s purchases are a redemption that gives every black body a voice and a history. Her doll room then functions as a kind of anti-barracoon where lost souls recover their identities and re-unite with family and friends.
***
Paulette Richards has been writing about “the serious business of doll play” on her blog, Limbé Dolls, since April 2011. Formerly the Associate Director of the Nommo Literary Society/ Neo Griot Krewe writing workshop in New Orleans, she holds a Ph.D. in French Civilization from the University of Virginia. During the 2013-2014 academic year, Richards will further explore the griot tradition as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow in Saint Louis, Senegal.



dbg

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Autographed Paperback Version of The Doll Blogs

The paperback version of my third doll publication, The Doll Blogs:  When Dolls Speak, I Listen, is an active Amazon.com product.  Unlike the electronic version, the paperback can be purchased by both domestic and international customers.

For a few dollars less than the Amazon.com price, domestic customers can also purchase the paperback version using the Paypal Buy Now link on the home page of this blog. 

Initially released as an electronic (eBook) via Google's eBookstore and their affiliates (such as Powell's and Alibris), by popular demand from those who enjoy holding books in their hands, an ultra limited amount of autographed, numbered paperback copies are now available.  Sales commenced yesterday. 

For additional information about both versions (eBook and autographed paperback) of the first book featuring a variety of dolls that blog, click here. 

Many thanks in advance for your consideration and purchase!

dbg

President's Day Installment #1 - Let Freedom Ring

The following is an excerpt from my book,  The Doll Blogs:  When Dolls Speak, I Listen.  In this first electronic book that features "dolls that blog," over a two-year period (January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2009) dolls from my personal collection "used me" as a facilitator to tell their individual stories.

Friday, May 29, 2009


Debbie picked me up from the post office today after buying me from “Artistic Differences,” a Ruby Lane seller. Ruby Lane is a cyberspace home to over 2000 independently owned shops from around the world. Several shop owners sell antique-to-modern dolls. Debbie found me at “Artistic Differences” after searching the Internet for dolls made by African American doll artists. My Ruby Lane description read: “This darling little girl is a one of a kind sculpt by Gloria Young. From the bottom to the top [of] her flag pole she is 10" tall. She is very primitive and just so charming.”

It’s a small world because Gloria Young is a former member of WLBD and remains a member of Debbie’s Black Doll-E-Zine Yahoo! Group. Debbie wanted to add one of Gloria’s polymer clay sculpts to her collection after purchasing Lou-Ellen, a cloth doll made by Gloria. Even though Gloria’s dolls are considered primitive, they are never derogatory or offensive. Her dolls all have a story to tell and I do, too.

I represent a recently freed, formerly enslaved girl. I’m probably 8, but I don’t really know when I was born. I just came and they never told me. They took me from my mama and brought me here. I had to carry water to the field workers and do just about whatever they wanted me to do… had to, if I didn’t want a whipping and wanted to stay living. The only day I didn’t have to work was Sunday, but by the time Sunday came around, I was always so tired and there wasn’t ever anything fun to do. Me and the other children played made-up silly games and sang songs, but before you knew it, Sunday would be Monday with more work to do.

While enslaved, I never learned to read and write. That wasn’t allowed. You see this smile on my face… I always smile, even when I’m not happy. No use in walking around with a frown on my face because a frown never solved a problem. But you know what? I’m really happy now. This smile is for real because why? Because I’m free now and because Debbie found me and can tell my story.

I traveled all the way from Temperance, Michigan to Texas. Temperance… now, imagine that? Debbie doesn’t know how I arrived in Temperance because Gloria lives in New Jersey, but by way of New Jersey somehow to Michigan, I am now in Texas.

I am seated on a wooden bench. It has the image of a horse’s head at the base. My dress is tea stained and I have a red bandana tied around my neck. My shoes are molded. My hair is, too. The American flag, picture of Abraham Lincoln, and basket of cotton add to my “Let Freedom Ring” theme.

Signed,

X (Let Freedom Ring, but Debbie is thinking about naming me Temperance Freedom)

dbg

Please adhere to copyright notice (see bottom of blog).

The Doll Blogs: When Dolls Speak I Listen

On December 6, 2010, Google launched a new service that allows you to purchase and read books online:  Google ebookstore.  My third publication about dolls, The Doll Blogs:  When Dolls Speak, I Listen, is a Google ebookstore title as is my second black-doll reference book, Black Dolls:  A Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating, Collecting, and Experiencing the Passion. 

About The Doll Blogs: To serve the doll-collecting community, particularly avid Black-doll enthusiasts, Ms. Garrett continues to write about the dolls she loves. In this, her third doll publication, dolls, both old and new, blog their experiences over a two-year period as chosen dolls in Garrett's extensive and quite eclectic Black-doll collection. Dolls by various artists and manufacturers, from vintage to modern, play dolls to one-of-a-kind dolls are included in this 297-page electronic book. If you love dolls, possess a vivid imagination, and enjoy combining the two, you will derive great pleasure reading The Doll Blogs, another first for Debbie Behan Garrett.


Garrett takes the reader on an imaginative voyage in doll-collecting world where she meets and greets new dolls, reacquaints herself with old ones, and continues the passion for all as a doll whisperer, allowing the dolls to speak through her. This first book devoted to dolls that speak in blog form is masterfully engaging, a sure delight.

Reader Review:

I have read the preview of The Doll Blogs and really enjoyed it. Debbie Garrett is near genius to come up with such an idea to impart information about dolls from what appears to be the dolls themselves. I have to admit it was totally different than what I expected and a lot more entertaining than just reading mere facts about each doll.

Leslie Whitaker

You, too, can enjoy reading The Doll Blogs and viewing its well-over 400+ illustrations in full color using a variety of Google eBook-compatible devices —everything from personal computers, laptops, and netbooks to tablets, smartphones, and e-readers (it is not on the Kindle, just yet, and unfortunately is only available to domestic customers.)

If you live in the US, you may sample and/or purchase The Doll Blogs now from the Google eBookstore with a major credit card, but you must first be a registered Google.com user (which is free).

To access both titles, click here.

Thank you in advance for your support, for your reviews after you have purchased and read either title, and for forwarding the link to this blog to others who may be interested!

dbg

Please adhere to copyright notice (see bottom of blog).