Kindred

KINDRED

Octavia E. Butler

BEACON PRESS BOSTON

Beacon Press

25 Beacon Street

Boston, Massachusetts 02108 www.beacon.org

Beacon Press books

are published under the auspices of

the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.

© 1979 by Octavia E. Butler

Reader’s Guide © 2003 by Beacon Press

First published as a hardcover by Doubleday in 1979

First published as a Beacon paperback in 1988

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

13 12 11 10 09 14 13 12 11 10

This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the uncoated paper

ANSI/NISO specifications for permanence as revised in 1992.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Butler, Octavia E.

Kindred / Octavia E. Butler ; with an afterword by Robert Crossley. p. cm. — (Black women writers series)

Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8070-8369-7 (alk. paper)

1. African American women—Fiction. 2. Los Angeles (Calif.)— Fiction. 3. Southern States—Fiction. 4. Slaveholders—Fiction. 5. Time travel—Fiction. 6. Slavery—Fiction. 7. Slaves—Fiction. I. Title.

II. Series.

PS3552.U827K5 2004

813'.54—dc22

2003062862

To Victoria Rose, friend and goad