Large Format for easy reading. Douglass was among the most prominent African-Americans of his time, and one of the most influential lecturers and authors in American history. His most well-known work is his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Critics frequently attacked the book as inauthentic, not believing that a black man could have produced so eloquent a piece of literature. It was an immediate bestseller. My Bondage and My Freedom, written ten years later is his most accomplished autobiographical account of his life on literary and philosophical terms.