Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou | |
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.jpg) Angelou reciting her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at US president Bill Clinton's inauguration, January 20, 1993 | |
| Born | Marguerite Annie Johnson April 4, 1928 St. Louis, Missouri, US |
| Died | May 28, 2014 (aged 86) Winston-Salem, North Carolina, US |
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| Period | 1951–2014 |
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| Notable works | |
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| Children | 1 |
| Website | |
| www | |
Maya Angelou (/ˈændʒəloʊ/ (
listen) AN-jə-loh;[1][2] born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees.[3] Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences.
The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. These included fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made approximately 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993) at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.
With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson for Black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of Black culture. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some US libraries. Angelou's most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes including racism, identity, family and travel.
Early life
Marguerite Annie Johnson[4] was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, the second child of Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer.[5][note 1] Angelou's older brother, Bailey Jr., nicknamed Marguerite "Maya", derived from "My" or "Mya Sister".[6] When Angelou was three and her brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage"[7] ended, and their father sent them to Stamps, Arkansas, alone by train, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. In "an astonishing exception"[8] to the harsh economics of African Americans of the time, Angelou's grandmother prospered financially during the Great Depression and World War II because the general store she owned sold needed basic commodities and because "she made wise and honest investments".[5][note 2]
Linguist John McWhorter, The New Republic[10] (McWhorter, p. 36)
The Guardian writer Gary Younge, 2009[11]
Four years later, when Angelou was seven and her brother eight, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning"[12] and returned them to their mother's care in St. Louis. At the age of eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, a man named Freeman. She told her brother, who told the rest of their family. Freeman was found guilty but was jailed for only one day. Four days after his release, he was murdered, probably by Angelou's uncles.[13] Angelou became mute for almost five years,[14] believing, as she stated, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone."[15] According to Marcia Ann Gillespie and her colleagues, who wrote a biography about Angelou, it was during this period of silence when Angelou developed her extraordinary memory, her love for books and literature, and her ability to listen and observe the world around her.[16]
Shortly after Freeman's murder, when Angelou was eight and her brother nine, Angelou and her brother were sent back to their grandmother.[17] She attended the Lafayette County Training School, in Stamps, a Rosenwald School.[18] Angelou credits a teacher and friend of her family, Mrs. Bertha Flowers, with helping her speak again, challenging her by saying, "You do not love poetry, not until you speak it".[19] Flowers introduced her to authors such as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, authors who would affect her life and career, as well as Black female artists like Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset.[20][21][22]
When Angelou was fourteen and her brother fifteen, she and her brother moved in once again with their mother, who had since moved to Oakland, California. During World War II, Angelou attended the California Labor School. At the age of 16, she became the first Black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco.[23][24][25][26] She wanted the job badly, admiring the uniforms of the operators[25][26] — so much so that her mother referred to it as her "dream job."[26] Her mother encouraged her to pursue the position, but warned her that she would need to arrive early and work harder than others.[26] In 2014, Angelou received a lifetime achievement award from the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials as part of a session billed “Women Who Move the Nation.”[25][26]
Three weeks after completing school, at the age of seventeen, she gave birth to her son, Clyde (who later changed his name to Guy Johnson).[27][28]
Career
Adulthood and early career: 1951–61
In 1951, Angelou married Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician, former sailor, and aspiring musician, despite the condemnation of interracial relationships at the time and the disapproval of her mother.[29][30][note 3] She took modern dance classes during this time, and met dancers and choreographers Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford. Ailey and Angelou formed a dance team, calling themselves "Al and Rita", and performed modern dance at fraternal Black organizations throughout San Francisco but never became successful.[32] Angelou, her new husband, and her son moved to New York City so she could study African dance with Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus, but they returned to San Francisco a year later.[33]
After Angelou's marriage ended in 1954, she danced professionally in clubs around San Francisco, including the nightclub The Purple Onion, where she sang and danced to calypso music.[34] Up to that point, she went by the name of "Marguerite Johnson", or "Rita", but at the strong suggestion of her managers and supporters at The Purple Onion, she changed her professional name to "Maya Angelou" (her nickname and former married surname). It was a "distinctive name"[35] that set her apart and captured the feel of her calypso dance performances. During 1954 and 1955, Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. She began her practice of learning the language of every country she visited, and in a few years she gained proficiency in several languages.[36] In 1957, riding on the popularity of calypso, Angelou recorded her first album, Miss Calypso, which was reissued as a CD in 1996.[32][37][38] She appeared in an off-Broadway review that inspired the 1957 film Calypso Heat Wave, in which Angelou sang and performed her own compositions.[37][note 4][note 5]
Angelou met novelist John Oliver Killens in 1959 and, at his urging, moved to New York to concentrate on her writing career. She joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she met several major African-American authors, including John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Guy, Paule Marshall, and Julian Mayfield, and was published for the first time.[40] In 1960, after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and hearing him speak, she and Killens organized "the legendary"[41] Cabaret for Freedom to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and she was named SCLC's Northern Coordinator. According to scholar Lyman B. Hagen, her contributions to civil rights as a fundraiser and SCLC organizer were successful and "eminently effective".[42] Angelou also began her pro-Castro and anti-apartheid activism during this time.[43] She had joined the crowd cheering for Fidel Castro when he first entered the Hotel Theresa in Harlem New York during United Nations 15th General Assembly on 19 September 1960.[44]
Africa to Caged Bird: 1961–69
In 1961, Angelou performed in Jean Genet's play The Blacks, along with Abbey Lincoln, Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, Louis Gossett, Godfrey Cambridge, and Cicely Tyson.[45] Also in 1961, she met South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make; they never officially married.[46] She and her son Guy moved with Make to Cairo, where Angelou worked as an associate editor at the weekly English-language newspaper The Arab Observer.[47][48] In 1962, her relationship with Make ended, and she and Guy moved to Accra, Ghana so he could attend college, but he was seriously injured in an automobile accident.[note 6] Angelou remained in Accra for his recovery and ended up staying there until 1965. She became an administrator at the University of Ghana, and was active in the African-American expatriate community.[50] She was a feature editor for The African Review,[51] a freelance writer for the Ghanaian Times, wrote and broadcast for Radio Ghana, and worked and performed for Ghana's National Theatre. She performed in a revival of The Blacks in Geneva and Berlin.[52]
In Accra, she became close friends with Malcolm X during his visit in the early 1960s.[note 7] Angelou returned to the US in 1965 to help him build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity; he was assassinated shortly afterward. Devastated and adrift, she joined her brother in Hawaii, where she resumed her singing career. She moved back to Los Angeles to focus on her writing career. Working as a market researcher in Watts, Angelou witnessed the riots in the summer of 1965. She acted in and wrote plays, and returned to New York in 1967. She met her lifelong friend Rosa Guy and renewed her friendship with James Baldwin, whom she had met in Paris in the 1950s and called "my brother", during this time.[54] Her friend Jerry Purcell provided Angelou with a stipend to support her writing.[55]
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. asked Angelou to organize a march. She agreed, but postponed again,[41] and in what Gillespie calls "a macabre twist of fate",[56] he was assassinated on her 40th birthday (April 4).[note 8] Devastated again, she was encouraged out of her depression by her friend James Baldwin. As Gillespie states, "If 1968 was a year of great pain, loss, and sadness, it was also the year when America first witnessed the breadth and depth of Maya Angelou's spirit and creative genius".[56] Despite having almost no experience, she wrote, produced, and narrated Blacks, Blues, Black!,[58] a ten-part series of documentaries about the connection between blues music and Black Americans' African heritage, and what Angelou called the "Africanisms still current in the U.S."[59] for National Educational Television, the precursor of PBS. Also in 1968, inspired at a dinner party she attended with Baldwin, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and his wife Judy, and challenged by Random House editor Robert Loomis, she wrote her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, published in 1969. This brought her international recognition and acclaim.[60]
Later career
Released in 1972, Angelou's Georgia, Georgia, produced by a Swedish film company and filmed in Sweden, was the first produced screenplay by a Black woman.[61] She also wrote the film's soundtrack, despite having very little additional input in the filming of the movie.[62][note 9] Angelou married Paul du Feu, a Welsh carpenter and ex-husband of writer Germaine Greer, in San Francisco in 1973.[note 10] Over the next ten years, as Gillespie has stated, "She [Angelou] had accomplished more than many artists hope to achieve in a lifetime."[64] Angelou worked as a composer, writing for singer Roberta Flack,[note 11] and composing movie scores. She wrote articles, short stories, TV scripts, documentaries, autobiographies, and poetry. She produced plays and was named visiting professor at several colleges and universities. She was "a reluctant actor",[66] and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for her role in Look Away.[67] As a theater director, in 1988 she undertook a revival of Errol John's play Moon on a Rainbow Shawl at the Almeida Theatre in London.[68]
In 1977, Angelou appeared in a supporting role in the television mini-series Roots. She was given a multitude of awards during this period, including more than thirty honorary degrees from colleges and universities from all over the world.[67] In the late 1970s, Angelou met Oprah Winfrey when Winfrey was a TV anchor in Baltimore, Maryland; Angelou would later become Winfrey's close friend and mentor.[69][note 12] In 1981, Angelou and du Feu divorced.
She returned to the southern United States in 1981 because she felt she had to come to terms with her past there and, despite having no bachelor's degree, accepted the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she was one of a few full-time African-American professors.[71][72] From that point on, she considered herself "a teacher who writes".[73] Angelou taught a variety of subjects that reflected her interests, including philosophy, ethics, theology, science, theater, and writing.[74] The Winston-Salem Journal reported that even though she made many friends on campus, "she never quite lived down all of the criticism from people who thought she was more of a celebrity than an intellect...[and] an overpaid figurehead".[72] The last course she taught at Wake Forest was in 2011, but she was planning to teach another course in late 2014. Her final speaking engagement at the university was in late 2013.[75] Beginning in the 1990s, Angelou actively participated in the lecture circuit[76] in a customized tour bus, something she continued into her eighties.[77][78]
In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.[76] Her recitation resulted in more fame and recognition for her previous works, and broadened her appeal "across racial, economic, and educational boundaries".[79] The recording of the poem won a Grammy Award.[80] In June 1995, she delivered what Richard Long called her "second 'public' poem",[81] entitled "A Brave and Startling Truth", which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.
Angelou achieved her goal of directing a feature film in 1996, Down in the Delta, which featured actors such as Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes.[82] Also in 1996, she collaborated with R&B artists Ashford & Simpson on seven of the eleven tracks of their album Been Found. The album was responsible for three of Angelou's only Billboard chart appearances.[83] In 2000, she created a successful collection of products for Hallmark, including greeting cards and decorative household items.[84][85] She responded to critics who charged her with being too commercial by stating that "the enterprise was perfectly in keeping with her role as 'the people's poet'".[86] More than thirty years after Angelou began writing her life story, she completed her sixth autobiography A Song Flung Up to Heaven, in 2002.[87]
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Angelou campaigned for the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential primaries, giving her public support to Hillary Clinton.[57] In the run-up to the January Democratic primary in South Carolina, the Clinton campaign ran ads featuring Angelou's endorsement.[88] The ads were part of the campaign's efforts to rally support in the Black community;[89] but Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary, finishing 29 points ahead of Clinton and taking 80% of the Black vote.[90] When Clinton's campaign ended, Angelou put her support behind Obama,[57] who went on to win the presidential election and became the first African-American president of the United States. After Obama's inauguration, she stated, "We are growing up beyond the idiocies of racism and sexism."[91]
In late 2010, Angelou donated her personal papers and career memorabilia to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.[92] They consisted of more than 340 boxes of documents that featured her handwritten notes on yellow legal pads for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a 1982 telegram from Coretta Scott King, fan mail, and personal and professional correspondence from colleagues such as her editor Robert Loomis.[93] In 2011, Angelou served as a consultant for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. She spoke out in opposition to a paraphrase of a quotation by King that appeared on the memorial, saying, "The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit",[94] and demanded that it be changed. Eventually, the paraphrase was removed.[95]
In 2013, at the age of 85, Angelou published the seventh volume of autobiography in her series, entitled Mom & Me & Mom, which focuses on her relationship with her mother.[96]
Personal life
Evidence suggests that Angelou was partially descended from the Mende people of West Africa.[100][note 13] In 2008, a DNA test revealed that among all of her African ancestors, 45 percent were from the Congo-Angola region and 55 percent were from West Africa.[102] A 2008 PBS documentary found that Angelou's maternal great-grandmother Mary Lee, who had been emancipated after the Civil War, became pregnant by her white former owner, John Savin. Savin forced Lee to sign a false statement accusing another man of being the father of her child. After Savin was indicted for forcing Lee to commit perjury, and despite the discovery that Savin was the father, a jury found him not guilty. Lee was sent to the Clinton County poorhouse in Missouri with her daughter, Marguerite Baxter, who became Angelou's grandmother. Angelou described Lee as "that poor little black girl, physically and mentally bruised".[103]
The details of Angelou's life described in her seven autobiographies and in numerous interviews, speeches, and articles tended to be inconsistent. Critic Mary Jane Lupton has explained that when Angelou spoke about her life, she did so eloquently but informally and "with no time chart in front of her".[104] For example, she was married at least twice, but never clarified the number of times she had been married, "for fear of sounding frivolous";[77] according to her autobiographies and to Gillespie, she married Tosh Angelos in 1951 and Paul du Feu in 1974, and began her relationship with Vusumzi Make in 1961, but never formally married him. Angelou held many jobs, including some in the sex trade, working as a prostitute and madam for lesbians, as she described in her second autobiography, Gather Together in My Name. In a 1995 interview, Angelou said,
Angelou had one son, Guy, whose birth she described in her first autobiography; one grandson, two great-grandchildren,[106] and, according to Gillespie, a large group of friends and extended family.[note 14] Angelou's mother Vivian Baxter died in 1991 and her brother Bailey Johnson Jr., died in 2000 after a series of strokes; both were important figures in her life and her books.[107][note 15] In 1981, the mother of her grandson disappeared with him; finding him took four years.[108][note 16]
In 2009, the gossip website TMZ erroneously reported that Angelou had been hospitalized in Los Angeles when she was alive and well in St. Louis, which resulted in rumors of her death and, according to Angelou, concern among her friends and family worldwide.[11] In 2013, Angelou told her friend Oprah Winfrey that she had studied courses offered by the Unity Church, which were spiritually significant to her.[110] She did not earn a university degree, but according to Gillespie it was Angelou's preference to be called "Dr. Angelou" by people outside of her family and close friends. She owned two homes in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a "lordly brownstone"[11] in Harlem, which was purchased in 2004[111] and was full of her "growing library"[112] of books she collected throughout her life, artwork collected over the span of many decades, and well-stocked kitchens. The Guardian writer Gary Younge reported that in Angelou's Harlem home were several African wall hangings and her collection of paintings, including ones of several jazz trumpeters, a watercolor of Rosa Parks, and a Faith Ringgold work entitled "Maya's Quilt Of Life".[11]
According to Gillespie, she hosted several celebrations per year at her main residence in Winston-Salem; "her skill in the kitchen is the stuff of legend—from haute cuisine to down-home comfort food".[78] The Winston-Salem Journal stated: "Securing an invitation to one of Angelou's Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas tree decorating parties or birthday parties was among the most coveted invitations in town."[72] The New York Times, describing Angelou's residence history in New York City, stated that she regularly hosted elaborate New Year's Day parties.[111] She combined her cooking and writing skills in her 2004 book Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, which featured 73 recipes, many of which she learned from her grandmother and mother, accompanied by 28 vignettes.[113] She followed up in 2010 with her second cookbook, Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart, which focused on weight loss and portion control.[114]
Beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou used the same "writing ritual"[22] for many years. She would wake early in the morning and check into a hotel room, where the staff was instructed to remove any pictures from the walls. She would write on legal pads while lying on the bed, with only a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards to play solitaire, Roget's Thesaurus, and the Bible, and would leave by the early afternoon. She would average 10–12 pages of written material a day, which she edited down to three or four pages in the evening.[115][note 17][117] She went through this process to "enchant" herself, and as she said in a 1989 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, "relive the agony, the anguish, the Sturm und Drang".[118] She placed herself back in the time she wrote about, even traumatic experiences such as her rape in Caged Bird, in order to "tell the human truth"[118] about her life. Angelou stated that she played cards in order to get to that place of enchantment and in order to access her memories more effectively. She said, "It may take an hour to get into it, but once I'm in it—ha! It's so delicious!"[118] She did not find the process cathartic; rather, she found relief in "telling the truth".[118]
Death
Angelou died on the morning of May 28, 2014 at the age 86.[119] She was found by her nurse. Although Angelou had reportedly been in poor health and had canceled recent scheduled appearances, she was working on another book, an autobiography about her experiences with national and world leaders.[72][86] During her memorial service at Wake Forest University, her son Guy Johnson stated that despite being in constant pain due to her dancing career and respiratory failure, she wrote four books during the last ten years of her life. He said, "She left this mortal plane with no loss of acuity and no loss in comprehension."[120]
Tributes to Angelou and condolences were paid by artists, entertainers, and world leaders, including Obama, whose sister was named after Angelou, and Bill Clinton.[86][121] Harold Augenbraum, from the National Book Foundation, said that Angelou's "legacy is one that all writers and readers across the world can admire and aspire to."[122] The week after Angelou's death, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings rose to number 1 on Amazon.com's bestseller list.[86]
On May 29, 2014, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, of which Angelou was a member for 30 years, held a public memorial service to honor her.[123] On June 7, a private memorial service was held at Wait Chapel on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. The memorial was shown live on local stations in the Winston-Salem/Triad area and streamed live on the university web site with speeches from her son, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton.[124][125][126][127] On June 15, a memorial was held at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, where Angelou was a member for many years. Rev. Cecil Williams, Mayor Ed Lee, and former mayor Willie Brown spoke.[128]
Works
Angelou wrote a total of seven autobiographies. According to scholar Mary Jane Lupton, Angelou's third autobiography Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas marked the first time a well-known African-American autobiographer had written a third volume about her life.[129] Her books "stretch over time and place", from Arkansas to Africa and back to the US, and take place from the beginnings of World War II to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.[130] In her fifth autobiography “All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes” (1986) Angelou tells about her return to Ghana searching for the past of her tribe.[131] She published her seventh autobiography Mom & Me & Mom in 2013, at the age of 85.[132] Critics have tended to judge Angelou's subsequent autobiographies "in light of the first",[133] with Caged Bird receiving the highest praise. Angelou wrote five collections of essays, which writer Hilton Als called her "wisdom books" and "homilies strung together with autobiographical texts".[41] Angelou used the same editor throughout her writing career, Robert Loomis, an executive editor at Random House; he retired in 2011[134] and has been called "one of publishing's hall of fame editors."[135] Angelou said regarding Loomis: "We have a relationship that's kind of famous among publishers."[136]
Maya Angelou[137]
Angelou's long and extensive career also included poetry, plays, screenplays for television and film, directing, acting, and public speaking. She was a prolific writer of poetry; her volume Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she was chosen by US President Bill Clinton to recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" during his inauguration in 1993.[76][138]
Angelou's successful acting career included roles in numerous plays, films, and television programs, including her appearance in the television mini-series Roots in 1977. Her screenplay, Georgia, Georgia (1972), was the first original script by a Black woman to be produced, and she was the first African-American woman to direct a major motion picture, Down in the Delta, in 1998.[82]
Chronology of autobiographies
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969): Up to 1944 (age 17)
- Gather Together in My Name (1974): 1944–48
- Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976): 1949–55
- The Heart of a Woman (1981): 1957–62
- All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986): 1962–65
- A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002): 1965–68
- Mom & Me & Mom (2013): overview
Reception and legacy
Influence
When I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published in 1969, Angelou was hailed as a new kind of memoirist, one of the first African-American women who were able to publicly discuss their personal lives. According to scholar Hilton Als, up to that point, Black female writers were marginalized to the point that they were unable to present themselves as central characters in the literature they wrote.[41] Linguist John McWhorter agreed, seeing Angelou's works, which he called "tracts", as "apologetic writing". He placed Angelou in the tradition of African-American literature as a defense of Black culture, which he called "a literary manifestation of the imperative that reigned in the black scholarship of the period".[139] Writer Julian Mayfield, who called Caged Bird "a work of art that eludes description",[41] argued that Angelou's autobiographies set a precedent for not only other Black women writers, but also African-American autobiography as a whole. Als said that Caged Bird marked one of the first times that a Black autobiographer could, as he put it, "write about blackness from the inside, without apology or defense".[41] Through the writing of her autobiography, Angelou became recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for Blacks and women.[140] It made her "without a doubt, ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer",[140] and "a major autobiographical voice of the time".[141] As writer Gary Younge said, "Probably more than almost any other writer alive, Angelou's life literally is her work."[77]
Als said that Caged Bird helped increase Black feminist writings in the 1970s, less through its originality than "its resonance in the prevailing Zeitgeist",[41] or the time in which it was written, at the end of the American Civil Rights Movement. Als also claimed that Angelou's writings, more interested in self-revelation than in politics or feminism, have freed other female writers to "open themselves up without shame to the eyes of the world".[41] Angelou critic Joanne M. Braxton stated that Caged Bird was "perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing" autobiography written by an African-American woman in its era.[140] Angelou's poetry has influenced the modern hip-hop music community, including artists such as Kanye West, Common, Tupac Shakur, and Nicki Minaj.[142]
Critical reception
Reviewer Elsie B. Washington called Angelou "the black woman's poet laureate".[143] Sales of the paperback version of her books and poetry rose by 300–600% the week after Angelou's recitation Random House, which published the poem later that year, had to reprint 400,000 copies of all her books to keep up with the demand. They sold more of her books in January 1993 than they did in all of 1992, accounting for a 1200% increase.[144] Angelou famously said, in response to criticism regarding using the details of her life in her work, "I agree with Balzac and 19th-century writers, black and white, who say, 'I write for money'."[77] Younge, speaking after the publication of Angelou's third book of essays, Letter to My Daughter (2008), has said, "For the last couple of decades she has merged her various talents into a kind of performance art—issuing a message of personal and social uplift by blending poetry, song and conversation."[11]
Angelou's books, especially I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, have been criticized by many parents, causing their removal from school curricula and library shelves. According to the National Coalition Against Censorship, some parents and some schools have objected to Caged Bird's depictions of lesbianism, premarital cohabitation, pornography, and violence.[145] Some have been critical of the book's sexually explicit scenes, use of language, and irreverent depictions of religion.[146] Caged Bird appeared third on the American Library Association (ALA) list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 and sixth on the ALA's 2000–2009 list.[147][148]
Awards and honors
Angelou was honored by universities, literary organizations, government agencies, and special interest groups. Her honors included a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her book of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie,[138] a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1973 play Look Away, and three Grammys for her spoken word albums.[149][150] She served on two presidential committees,[133][151] and was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1994,[152] the National Medal of Arts in 2000,[153] and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.[154] Angelou was awarded more than fifty honorary degrees.[3] In 2021, the United States Mint announced that Angelou would be among the first women depicted on the reverse of the quarter as a part of the American Women quarters series.[155][156]
Uses in education
Angelou's autobiographies have been used in narrative and multicultural approaches in teacher education. Jocelyn A. Glazier, a professor at George Washington University, has trained teachers how to "talk about race" in their classrooms with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name. According to Glazier, Angelou's use of understatement, self-mockery, humor, and irony have left readers of Angelou's autobiographies unsure of what she left out and how they should respond to the events she described. Angelou's depictions of her experiences of racism have forced white readers to either explore their feelings about race and their own "privileged status", or to avoid the discussion as a means of keeping their privilege. Glazier found that critics have focused on the way Angelou fits within the genre of African-American autobiography and on her literary techniques, but readers have tended to react to her storytelling with "surprise, particularly when [they] enter the text with certain expectations about the genre of autobiography".[157]
Educator Daniel Challener, in his 1997 book Stories of Resilience in Childhood, analyzed the events in Caged Bird to illustrate resiliency in children. He argued that Angelou's book has provided a "useful framework" for exploring the obstacles many children like Maya have faced and how their communities have helped them succeed.[158] Psychologist Chris Boyatzis has reported using Caged Bird to supplement scientific theory and research in the instruction of child development topics such as the development of self-concept and self-esteem, ego resilience, industry versus inferiority, effects of abuse, parenting styles, sibling and friendship relations, gender issues, cognitive development, puberty, and identity formation in adolescence. He found Caged Bird a "highly effective" tool for providing real-life examples of these psychological concepts.[159]
Poetry
Angelou is best known for her seven autobiographies, but she was also a prolific and successful poet. She was called "the black woman's poet laureate", and her poems have been called the anthems of African Americans.[143] Angelou studied and began writing poetry at a young age, and used poetry and other great literature to cope with her rape as a young girl, as described in Caged Bird.[20] According to scholar Yasmin Y. DeGout, literature also affected Angelou's sensibilities as the poet and writer she became, especially the "liberating discourse that would evolve in her own poetic canon".[160]
Many critics consider Angelou's autobiographies more important than her poetry.[161] Although all her books have been best-sellers, her poetry has not been perceived to be as serious as her prose and has been understudied.[5] Her poems were more interesting when she recited and performed them, and many critics emphasized the public aspect of her poetry.[162] Angelou's lack of critical acclaim has been attributed to both the public nature of many of her poems and to Angelou's popular success, and to critics' preferences for poetry as a written form rather than a verbal, performed one.[163] Zofia Burr has countered Angelou's critics by condemning them for not taking into account Angelou's larger purposes in her writing: "to be representative rather than individual, authoritative rather than confessional".[164]
Style and genre in autobiographies
Angelou's use of fiction-writing techniques such as dialogue, characterization, and development of theme, setting, plot, and language has often resulted in the placement of her books into the genre of autobiographical fiction.[165] Angelou made a deliberate attempt in her books to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre.[166] Scholar Mary Jane Lupton argues that all of Angelou's autobiographies conform to the genre's standard structure: they are written by a single author, they are chronological, and they contain elements of character, technique, and theme.[167] Angelou recognizes that there are fictional aspects to her books; Lupton agrees, stating that Angelou tended to "diverge from the conventional notion of autobiography as truth",[168] which parallels the conventions of much of African-American autobiography written during the abolitionist period of US history, when as both Lupton and African-American scholar Crispin Sartwell put it, the truth was censored out of the need for self-protection.[168][169] Scholar Lyman B. Hagen places Angelou in the long tradition of African-American autobiography, but claims that Angelou created a unique interpretation of the autobiographical form.[170]
According to African-American literature scholar Pierre A. Walker, the challenge for much of the history of African-American literature was that its authors have had to confirm its status as literature before they could accomplish their political goals, which was why Angelou's editor Robert Loomis was able to dare her into writing Caged Bird by challenging her to write an autobiography that could be considered "high art".[171] Angelou acknowledged that she followed the slave narrative tradition of "speaking in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always saying I meaning 'we'".[133] Scholar John McWhorter calls Angelou's books "tracts"[139] that defend African-American culture and fight negative stereotypes. According to McWhorter, Angelou structured her books, which to him seem to be written more for children than for adults, to support her defense of Black culture. McWhorter sees Angelou as she depicts herself in her autobiographies "as a kind of stand-in figure for the Black American in Troubled Times".[139] McWhorter views Angelou's works as dated, but recognizes that "she has helped to pave the way for contemporary black writers who are able to enjoy the luxury of being merely individuals, no longer representatives of the race, only themselves".[172] Scholar Lynn Z. Bloom compares Angelou's works to the writings of Frederick Douglass, stating that both fulfilled the same purpose: to describe Black culture and to interpret it for their wider, white audiences.[173]
According to scholar Sondra O'Neale, Angelou's poetry can be placed within the African-American oral tradition, and her prose "follows classic technique in nonpoetic Western forms".[174] O'Neale states that Angelou avoided using a "monolithic Black language",[175] and accomplished, through direct dialogue, what O'Neale calls a "more expected ghetto expressiveness".[175] McWhorter finds both the language Angelou used in her autobiographies and the people she depicted unrealistic, resulting in a separation between her and her audience. As McWhorter states, "I have never read autobiographical writing where I had such a hard time summoning a sense of how the subject talks, or a sense of who the subject really is".[176] McWhorter asserts, for example, that key figures in Angelou's books, like herself, her son Guy, and mother Vivian do not speak as one would expect, and that their speech is "cleaned up" for her readers.[177] Guy, for example, represents the young Black male, while Vivian represents the idealized mother figure, and the stiff language they use, as well as the language in Angelou's text, is intended to prove that Blacks can use standard English competently.[178]
McWhorter recognizes that much of the reason for Angelou's style was the "apologetic" nature of her writing.[139] When Angelou wrote Caged Bird at the end of the 1960s, one of the necessary and accepted features of literature at the time was "organic unity", and one of her goals was to create a book that satisfied that criterion.[171] The events in her books were episodic and crafted like a series of short stories, but their arrangements did not follow a strict chronology. Instead, they were placed to emphasize the themes of her books, which include racism, identity, family, and travel. English literature scholar Valerie Sayers has asserted that "Angelou's poetry and prose are similar". They both rely on her "direct voice", which alternates steady rhythms with syncopated patterns and uses similes and metaphors (e.g., the caged bird).[179] According to Hagen, Angelou's works were influenced by both conventional literary and the oral traditions of the African-American community. For example, she referenced more than 100 literary characters throughout her books and poetry.[180] In addition, she used the elements of blues music, including the act of testimony when speaking of one's life and struggles, ironic understatement, and the use of natural metaphors, rhythms, and intonations.[181] Angelou, instead of depending upon plot, used personal and historical events to shape her books.[182]
References
Explanatory notes
- ^ Angelou wrote about Vivian Baxter's life and their relationship in Mom & Me & Mom (2013), her final installment in her series of seven autobiographies.
- ^ According to Angelou, Annie Henderson built her business with food stalls catering to Black workers, which eventually developed into a store.[9]
- ^ The correct Greek spelling of Angelou's husband name is probably "Anastasios Angelopoulos".[31]
- ^ Reviewer John M. Miller calls Angelou's performance of her song "All That Happens in the Marketplace" the "most genuine musical moment in the film".[37]
- ^ In Angelou's third book of essays, Letter to My Daughter(2009), she credits Cuban artist Celia Cruz as one of the greatest influences of her singing career, and later, credits Cruz for the effectiveness and impact of Angelou's poetry performances and readings.[39]
- ^ Guy Johnson, who as a result of this accident in Accra and one in the late 1960s, underwent a series of spinal surgeries. He, like his mother, became a writer and poet.[49]
- ^ Angelou called her friendship with Malcolm X "a brother/sister relationship".[53]
- ^ Angelou did not celebrate her birthday for many years, choosing instead to send flowers to King's widow Coretta Scott King.[57]
- ^ See Mom & Me & Mom, pp. 168–178, for a description of Angelou's experience in Stockholm.
- ^ Angelou described their marriage, which she called "made in heaven",[63] in her second book of essays Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997).
- ^ Angelou co-wrote "And So It Goes" on Flack's 1988 album Oasis.[65]
- ^ Angelou dedicated her 1993 book of essays Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now to Winfrey.[70]
- ^ In her fifth autobiography All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1987), Angelou recounts being identified, on the basis of her appearance, as part of the Bambara people, a subset of the Mande.[101]
- ^ See Gillespie et al., pp. 153–175.
- ^ Angelou describes her brother's addiction to heroin in Mom & Me & Mom, pp. 189–194.
- ^ In Angelou's essay, "My Grandson, Home at Last", published in Woman's Day in 1986, she describes the kidnapping and her response to it.[109]
- ^ In Letter to My Daughter (2009), Angelou's third book of essays, she related the first time she used legal pads to write.[116]
Citations
- ^ "Maya Angelou". SwissEduc.com. December 17, 2013. Archived from the original on December 17, 2013.
- ^ Glover, Terry (December 2009). "Dr. Maya Angelou". Ebony. Vol. 65 no. 2. p. 67.
- ^ a b Stanley, Alessandra (May 17, 1992). "Whose Honor Is It, Anyway". The New York Times. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
- ^ Ferrer, Anne (May 29, 2014). "Angelou's optimism overcame hardships". The Star Phoenix. Archived from the original on May 31, 2014. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
- ^ a b c Lupton, p. 4.
- ^ Angelou (1969), p. 67.
- ^ Angelou (1969), p. 6.
- ^ Johnson, Claudia (2008). "Introduction". In Johnson, Claudia (ed.). Racism in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-7377-3905-3.
- ^ Angelou (1993), pp. 21–24.
- ^ McWhorter, John (May 28, 2014). "Saint Maya Angelou: The Product of a Blissfully Bygone America". The New Republic. Retrieved December 25, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Younge, Gary (November 13, 2013). "Maya Angelou: 'I'm fine as wine in the summertime". The Guardian. London. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
- ^ Angelou (1969), p. 52.
- ^ Braxton, Joanne M. (1999). Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook. Oxford University Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-19-511607-6.
- ^ Lupton, p. 5.
- ^ "Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". World Book Club. BBC World Service. October 2005. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 22.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 21–22.
- ^ Jannol, Hannah (December 7, 2017). "The Little Known Story of How a Jewish Sears Exec. Helped His African-American Neighbors". New York Jewish Week. Retrieved July 9,2021.
- ^ "'Fresh Air' Remembers Poet And Memoirist Maya Angelou". National Public Radio. May 28, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
- ^ a b Angelou (1969), p. 13.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 23.
- ^ a b Lupton, p. 15.
- ^ "Maya Angelou | Market Street Railway". Market Street railway. February 1, 2021.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 28.
- ^ a b c Brown, DeNeen L. (March 12, 2014). "Why Maya Angelou wanted to become a street car conductor". She The People [blog]. The Washington Post. Retrieved June 26,2018.
- ^ a b c d e Fernandez, Lisa (May 28, 2014). "Maya Angelou Was 1st Black, Female San Francisco Street Car Conductor". NBC. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
- ^ Angelou (1969), p. 279.
- ^ Long, Richard (November 1, 2005). "35 Who Made a Difference: Maya Angelou". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
- ^ Hagen, p. xvi.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 29, 31.
- ^ Powell, Dannye Romine (1994). "Maya Angelou". Parting the Curtains: Interviews with Southern Writers. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: John F. Blair Publisher. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-89587-116-9.
- ^ a b Angelou (1993), p. 95.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 36–37.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 38.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 41.
- ^ Hagen, pp. 91–92.
- ^ a b c Miller, John M. "Calypso Heat Wave". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 48.
- ^ Angelou (2008), p. 80.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 49–51.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Als, Hilton (August 5, 2002). "Songbird: Maya Angelou takes another look at herself". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 18,2013.
- ^ Hagen, p. 103.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 57.
- ^ Simon Hall, Ten Days in Harlem, Faber & Faber Ltd. 2020 ISBN 978-0-571-35309-5 Chapter-3:Monday 19 September
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 64.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 59.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 65.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 71.
- ^ Gillespie, p. 156.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 74, 75.
- ^ Braxton, p. 3.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 79–80.
- ^ "Maya Angelou Biography and Interview". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
- ^ Boyd, Herb (August 5, 2010). "Maya Angelou Remembers James Baldwin". New York Amsterdam News. 100 (32): 17.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 85–96.
- ^ a b Gillespie et al., p. 98.
- ^ a b c Minzesheimer, Bob (March 26, 2008). "Maya Angelou celebrates her 80 years of pain and joy". USA Today. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
- ^ All 10 episodes of Blacks, Blues, Black! can be viewed online Bay Area Television Archive, diva.sfsu.edu, accessed December 23, 2019
- ^ Angelou, Maya (February 1982). "Why I Moved Back to the South". Ebony. No. 37. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
- ^ Smith, Dinitia (January 23, 2007). "A Career in Letters, 50 Years and Counting". The New York Times. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
- ^ Brown, Avonie (January 4, 1997). "Maya Angelou: The Phenomenal Woman Rises Again". New York Amsterdam News (88): 2.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 105.
- ^ Angelou, Maya (1997). Even the Stars Look Lonesome. New York: Random House. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-553-37972-3.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 119.
- ^ Feeney, Nolan (May 28, 2014). "Roberta Flack Remembers Maya Angelou: 'We All Have Been Inspired'". Time Magazine. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 110.
- ^ a b Moore, Lucinda (April 2003). "Growing Up Maya Angelou". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
- ^ Wolf, Matt (March 20, 2012). "The National Theatre's Global Flair". The New York Times. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
- ^ Winfrey, Oprah (December 2000). "Oprah Talks to Maya Angelou". O Magazine. Retrieved December 19,2013.
- ^ Angelou (1993), p. x.
- ^ Glover, Terry (December 2009). "Dr. Maya Angelou". Ebony. No. 65. p. 67.
- ^ a b c d Hewlett, Michael (May 28, 2014). "Maya Angelou, famed poet, writer, activist, dead at 86". The Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
- ^ Cohen, Patricia (host) (October 1, 2008). "Book Discussion on Letter to My Daughter". CSPAN Video Library (Documentary). The New York Times. Retrieved December 13,2013.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 126.
- ^ McGrath, Kim (June 2, 2014). "Remembering Dr. Maya Angelou". News Center. Wake Forest University. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
- ^ a b c Manegold, Catherine S. (January 20, 1993). "An Afternoon with Maya Angelou; A Wordsmith at Her Inaugural Anvil". The New York Times. Retrieved December 20,2013.
- ^ a b c d Younge, Gary (May 24, 2002). "No surrender". The Guardian. Retrieved December 20,2013.
- ^ a b Gillespie et al., p. 9.
- ^ Berkman, Meredith (February 26, 1993). "Everybody's All American". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 142.
- ^ Long, p. 84.
- ^ a b Gillespie et al., p. 144.
- ^ Letkemann, Jessica (May 28, 2014). "Maya Angelou's Life in Music: Ashford & Simpson Collab, Calypso Album & More". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved November 16,2014.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 10.
- ^ Williams, Jeannie (January 10, 2002). "Maya Angelou pens her sentiments for Hallmark". USA Today. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Alter, Alexander (May 28, 2014). "Author, Poet Maya Angelou Dies". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 175.
- ^ Mooney, Alexander (December 10, 2008). "Clinton camp answers Oprah with Angelou". CNN Politics.com. Retrieved April 4, 2009.
- ^ Williams, Krissah (January 18, 2008). "Presidential candidates court S.C. black newspaper". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 4,2009.
- ^ Zeleny, Jeff; Marjorie Connelly (January 27, 2008). "Obama Carries South Carolina by Wide Margin". New York Times. Retrieved April 4,2009.
- ^ Parker, Jennifer (January 19, 2009). "From King's 'I Have a Dream' to Obama Inauguration". ABC News. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Waldron, Clarence (November 11, 2010). "Maya Angelou Donates Private Collection to Schomburg Center in Harlem". Jet Magazine. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Lee, Felicia R. (October 26, 2010). "Schomburg Center in Harlem Acquires Maya Angelou Archive". The New York Times. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Weingarten, Gene; Ruane, Michael E. (August 30, 2011). "Maya Angelou says King memorial inscription makes him look 'arrogant'". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
- ^ Ruane, Michael E. (December 11, 2011). "Controversial King memorial inscription to be removed, not replaced". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
- ^ Sayers, Valerie (March 27, 2013). "'Mom & Me & Mom,' by Maya Angelou". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 11, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Tate, p. 150.
- ^ Angelou, Maya (1984). "Shades and Slashes of Light". In Evans, Mari (ed.). Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical Evaluation. Garden City, New York: Doubleday. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-385-17124-3.
- ^ Toppman, p. 145.
- ^ Gates, Jr., Henry L. (host) (2008). "African American Lives 2: The Past is Another Country (Part 4)". PBS. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Angelou, Maya (1986). All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 206–207. ISBN 978-0-679-73404-8.
- ^ Gates, Jr., Henry L. (2009). In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past. ISBN 9780307409737.
- ^ Gates, Jr., Henry L. (host) (2008). "African American Lives 2: A Way out of No Way (Part 2)". PBS. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Lupton, p. 2.
- ^ Wolf, Linda (Winter 1995). "Laugh and Dare to Love". In Context Magazine. Vol. 43. p. 45.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 156.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 155.
- ^ Beyette, Beverly (June 12, 1986). "Angelou's 4-Year Search for Grandson: Kidnapping Spurs Emotional Odyssey". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
- ^ Lupton, p. 19.
- ^ Chapman, Michael W (May 28, 2014). "Maya Angelou: 'God Loves Me' – 'That's Why I Am Who I Am'". CNS News.com. Retrieved July 30, 2015.
- ^ a b Yee, Vivian (May 29, 2014). "Maya Angelou Often Left New York, but She Always Came Back". The New York Times. p. A23. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 150.
- ^ Pierce, Donna (January 5, 2005). "Welcome to her world: Poet-author Maya Angelou blends recipes and memories in winning style". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 24, 2013.
- ^ Crea, Joe (January 18, 2011). "Maya Angelou's cookbook 'Great Food, All Day Long' exudes cozy, decadence". Northeast Ohio Media Group. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Sarler, Carol (1989). "A Day in the Life of Maya Angelou". In Elliot, Jeffrey M (ed.). Conversations with Maya Angelou. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-87805-362-9.
- ^ Angelou (2008), pp. 63–67.
- ^ Newport, Cal (May 20, 2021). "What if Remote Work Didn't Mean Working from Home?". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 29, 2021.
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- ^ "Maya Angelou 'the brightest light' says Barack Obama". BBC News. May 28, 2014. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
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- ^ DeGout, p. 122.
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- ^ a b Walker, p. 92.
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- ^ O'Neale, p. 32.
- ^ a b O'Neale, p. 34.
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- ^ Hagen, p. 63.
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- ^ Lupton, p. 142.
Works cited
- Angelou, Maya (1969). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50789-2
- Angelou, Maya (1993). Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-22363-6
- Angelou, Maya (2008). Letter to My Daughter. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-8129-8003-5
- Braxton, Joanne M., ed. (1999). Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook. New York: Oxford Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511606-9
- Braxton, Joanne M. "Symbolic Geography and Psychic Landscapes: A Conversation with Maya Angelou", pp. 3–20
- Tate, Claudia. "Maya Angelou: An Interview", pp. 149–158
- Burr, Zofia (2002). Of Women, Poetry, and Power: Strategies of Address in Dickinson, Miles, Brooks, Lorde, and Angelou. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-02769-7
- DeGout, Yasmin Y. (2009). "The Poetry of Maya Angelou: Liberation Ideology and Technique". In Bloom's Modern Critical Views – Maya Angelou, Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Infobase Publishing, pp. 121–132. ISBN 978-1-60413-177-2
- Gillespie, Marcia Ann, Rosa Johnson Butler, and Richard A. Long. (2008). Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-385-51108-7
- Hagen, Lyman B. (1997). Heart of a Woman, Mind of a Writer, and Soul of a Poet: A Critical Analysis of the Writings of Maya Angelou. Lanham, Maryland: University Press. ISBN 978-0-7618-0621-9
- Lauret, Maria (1994). Liberating Literature: Feminist Fiction in America. New York: Routledge Press. ISBN 978-0-415-06515-3
- Long, Richard (2005). "Maya Angelou". Smithsonian 36, (8): pp. 84–85
- Lupton, Mary Jane (1998). Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-30325-8
- McWhorter, John (2002). "Saint Maya." The New Republic226, (19): pp. 35–41.
- O'Neale, Sondra (1984). "Reconstruction of the Composite Self: New Images of Black Women in Maya Angelou's Continuing Autobiography", in Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical Evaluation, Mari Evans, ed. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-17124-3
- Toppman, Lawrence (1989). "Maya Angelou: The Serene Spirit of a Survivor", in Conversations with Maya Angelou, Jeffrey M. Elliot, ed. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press. ISBN 978-0-87805-362-9
- Walker, Pierre A. (October 1995). "Racial Protest, Identity, Words, and Form in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". College Literature 22, (3): pp. 91–108.
External links
 | Wikiquote has quotations related to: Maya Angelou |
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maya Angelou. |
- Official website
- Maya Angelou discography at Discogs
- Maya Angelou at IMDb
- Maya Angelou at the Internet Broadway Database
- Maya Angelou at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Maya Angelou papers at New York Public Library
- Maya Angelou memorial service at Wake Forest University
- Maya Angelou (some acting credits) at Aveleyman.com
- Spring, Kelly. "Maya Angelou". National Women's History Museum. 2017.
- Maya Angelou's Posthumous Album, 'Caged Bird Songs,' Debuts
- Appearances on C-SPAN
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Works by Maya Angelou
Albums
Miss Calypso
Autobiographies
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Gather Together in My Name
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry like Christmas
The Heart of a Woman
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
A Song Flung Up to Heaven
Mom & Me & Mom
Themes
Poetry
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie
Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well
And Still I Rise
Shaker, Why Don't You Sing?
Now Sheba Sings the Song
I Shall Not Be Moved
"On the Pulse of Morning"
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou
Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women
"A Brave and Startling Truth"
Celebrations, Rituals of Peace and Prayer
Mother: A Cradle to Hold Me
"We Had Him"
Life Doesn't Frighten Me
Essays
Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
Even the Stars Look Lonesome
Letter to My Daughter
Cookbooks
Hallelujah! The Welcome Table
Great Food, All Day Long
Screenplays
Georgia, Georgia (1972)
Sister, Sister (1982)
Films
Down in the Delta (1998)
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I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings: The international Classic and Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller (Virago Modern Classics) Kindle Edition
by Maya Angelou (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 out of 5 stars 18,985 ratings
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The international classic and bestseller, Maya Angelou's memoir paints a portrait of 'a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' (BARACK OBAMA).
'I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again' Maya Angelou
In this first volume of her seven books of autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a Black woman she has known discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration.
'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity' JAMES BALDWIN
'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY
'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate' TONI MORRISON
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Print length
317 pages
Language
English
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Product description
Review
A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman (President Barack Obama)
The poems and stories she wrote . . . were gifts of wisdom and wit, courage and grace (President Bill Clinton)
She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds (Oprah Winfrey)
She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate (Toni Morrison)
I know that not since the days of my childhood, when people in books were more real than the people one saw every day, have I found myself more moved (JAMES BALDWIN)
'There's currently a glut of true-life stories written by survivors of abuse, but this inspirational 1969 book is one of the first - and the best...[it] is testament to the immense strength of this extraordinary woman (MARIE CLAIRE)
Verve, nerve, and joy in her own talents effervesce throughout this book (JULIA O'FAOLAIN)
Its humour, even in the face of appalling discrimination, is robust. Autobiographical writing at its very best (PHILIP OAKES) --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
About the Author
Dr Maya Angelou was one of the world's most important writers and activists. Born 4 April 1928, she lived and chronicled an extraordinary life: rising from poverty, violence and racism, she became a renowned author, poet, playwright, civil rights' activist - working with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King - and memoirist. She wrote and performed a poem, 'On the Pulse of Morning', for President Clinton on his inauguration; she was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and was honoured by more than seventy universities throughout the world.
She first thrilled the world with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). This was followed by six volumes of autobiography, the seventh and final volume, Mom & Me & Mom, published in 2013. She wrote three collections of essays; many volumes of poetry, including His Day is Done, a tribute to Nelson Mandela; and two cookbooks. She had a lifetime appointment as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University of North Carolina. Dr Angelou died on 28 May 2014.--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From the Inside Flap
In the first volume of an extraordinary autobiographical series, one of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls--with candor, humor, poignancy and grace--how her journey began....
"From the Trade Paperback edition.--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From the Back Cover
A classic coming-of-age story
In this, the celebrated, bestselling first volume of her autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American South of the 1930s. She learns the power of the white folks at the other end of town and suffers the terrible trauma of rape by her mother's lover. As a black woman, Maya Angelou has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope and joy, celebration and achievement; loving the world, she also knows its cruelty.
Collect the series [thumbnails of all 6 titles]--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Book Description
A powerful modern classic, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is made available in a beautiful hardback in the VMC set for adult and young adult readers. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From the Publisher
As well as her autobiography Maya Angelou has written several volumes of poetry, including 'On the Pulse of the Morning' for the inauguration of President Clinton. She now has a life-time appointment as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From the Artist
Maya Angelou --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Review
A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman (President Barack Obama)
The poems and stories she wrote . . . were gifts of wisdom and wit, courage and grace (President Bill Clinton)
She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds (Oprah Winfrey)
She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate (Toni Morrison)
The collection has been expertly put together to remind the reader that while the way we describe things has changed, the feelings behind them certainly haven't. Bold, beautiful ... everyone's appetites will be satisfied. (Elle magazine) --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Review
A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman
The poems and stories she wrote . . . were gifts of wisdom and wit, courage and grace
She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds
She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
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Product details
ASIN : B003MQM7H8
Publisher : Virago; New Ed edition (17 May 2010)
Language : English
File size : 1379 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 317 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 55,470 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)64 in Biographies & Memoirs of Authors
147 in Biographies of Novelists
174 in Biographies & Memoirs of WomenCustomer Reviews:
4.7 out of 5 stars 18,985 ratings
About the author
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Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou has been waitress, singer, actress, dancer, activist, filmmaker, writer and mother. As well as her autobiography she has written several volumes of poetry, including 'On the Pulse of the Morning' for the inauguration of President Clinton. She now has a life-time appointment as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
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Customer reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully challengingReviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 9 January 2021
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Maya Angelou weaves her personal journey with the realities of the times she grew up in. A few times I was caught off guard because I was unable to have predicted what came next. However, her continual perseverance inspired me to read on.
Would read again, do recommend.
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Desi Glaros
4.0 out of 5 stars Why you should read..Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 9 August 2020
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Considering her experiences, which are the worst experiences for a child to have . Maya Angelou was a kindred women, intouch with who she is her artistic aesthetic , and how to part that on to her readers.
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RitaD
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and wondrousReviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 8 September 2017
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This is a beautiful book, rich in detail and feeling. At times, it's hard to remember it's an autobiography, not a novel, because of the power of the storytelling. She draws the reader into her reality, without self pity or self aggrandizement. Brilliant.
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Jasmine
2.0 out of 5 stars mehReviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 23 September 2022
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protagonist's childhood not articulated well
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Sydney1981
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read.Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 11 February 2016
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A classic. Considering the era this book was written, it provides profound lessons on the mistreatment of African Americans and the struggles of growing up during this time. A must read.
3 people found this helpful
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vespa
4.0 out of 5 stars SUCH A WONDERFUL MIXTUREReviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 7 July 2014
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I was captivated with Maya's use of the language. Highly descriptive and imaginative words that drew me in to her story. All at once sad, joyous, utterly believable, I was that black girl, I felt her struggles. The book sings with surprises, and hums with sorrow. As the famous tea maker says, do try it.
One person found this helpful
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Anne Whight
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 9 June 2014
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This book provides a deep insight into both an amazing woman's childhood and the times in which she grew up. It's harrowing at times but also uplifting. It's well written and I couldn't put it down. Don't miss this one!
One person found this helpful
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Sam Erickson
4.0 out of 5 stars Great readReviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 15 October 2015
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Thoroughly enjoyed reading the first of Maya Angelou's autobiography series. This book takes you up till she is 16 years old, looking forward to reading the next.
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Miscellany Pages
4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, Moving and Perceptive MemoirReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 13 May 2018
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Rating: 4 stars
Category: Memoir
Synopsis: ‘Memoir’ seems far too simple a word to describe I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Maya Angelou, a writer and civil rights activist (among numerous other careers) recounts her childhood experiences growing up first with her grandmother in the poor, isolated small-town Stamps and later with her mother in the lively glamour of San Francisco. However, she also relates these experiences into much wider issues from oppression to women’s sexuality. Someone asked me what the book is about and I found it so hard to summarise – it is a kaleidoscope of social exploration, perception, complex relationships, powerful moments and wisdom.
Review:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was my first experience of reading a memoir and I had my doubts… after all, don’t we read fiction to escape from real life? However, I was immediately engrossed by the combination of Maya Angelou’s compelling voice and the incredible variety and depth of her experiences. Her story comes close to covering the entire spectrum of human emotion; it leads readers through the horrifying, funny then achingly sad in a relatively short space of time.
Its almost lyrical style means the memoir reads almost like fiction and I had to keep reminding myself of its reality. In fact, Maya Angelou is credited with redefining the boundaries of autobiography, intending to ‘write an autobiography as literature.’
There is a thoughtful beauty in her writing, with so many words of wisdom that I had dozens of highlights on my Kindle and found it very difficult to pick just one favourite quote! However, I think the true poignancy of this memoir lies as much in the words she does not use.
"she would not sit beside a draft dodger who was a Negro as well. She added that the least he could do was fight for his country the way her son was fighting on Iwo Jima. The story said that the man pulled his body away from the window to show an armless sleeve. He said quietly and with great dignity, “Then ask your son to look around for my arm, which I left over there."
It is understood that powerful moments such as this need no further commentary. Instead, they are allowed to speak for themselves.
Also, the approach taken to portraying the complex relationships in the book is very much one of interwoven moments rather than a monologue. No attempt is made to simplify or explain these relationships; to do so would be to reduce them, and detract from the way in which the memoir explores the true nature of human connections. I was particularly fascinated by Maya’s relationship with her mother and grandmother, as well as the influence these two starkly different women had on her life.
Something about the book, other than its genre, felt strange and different when I first started reading it. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but then I realised that I have not read a book from a child’s perspective for a very long time (since Room by Emma Donoghue). I always enjoy the immediacy of reading from children’s viewpoints, so focused on present experience, but I found young Maya’s unique, intensely observant view of the world especially captivating.
However, I also relished watching her child’s perspective mature throughout the book as she ages. With the progress of the story, Maya begins to challenge, as well as observe, the nature of our world. I felt privileged to read about the experiences of such an extraordinary woman, who has had a truly extraordinary life.
Favourite quote: “See, you don’t have to think about doing the right thing. If you’re for the right thing, then you do it without thinking.”
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reg_sinclair
5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable book by a Remarkable WomanReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 3 November 2019
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The subject - a black woman brought up in the Deep South surrounded by bigotry and poverty - touches themes all too familiar to many but it is the writer's treatment of the material, thoughtful, measured, often amusing and never self-indulgent, communicated through the medium of a remarkably rich style of writing, which leaves the reader with a much deeper understanding of all the players involved at the time. In addition to the author there are some very memorable women, in particular Angelou's grandmother and her mother, the remarkable Vivian Baxter. The men, apart from her brother, Bailey, are lesser, more peripheral beings on the whole.
The writer writes of attitudes within the black community of which she is very gently critical, again in a thoughtful, completely unjudgemental way, and in that same, very muted, tone warns against victim complexes being sometimes unhelpful. Equality is about all being equal, having the same rights and opportunities, whether white or black, not vengeance for appalling ignorance, racist attitudes and shocking behaviour. This is a book written with great humanity and great dignity.
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Andie
5.0 out of 5 stars So what's changed?Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 29 March 2017
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It's sad that even now, someone like me born so many years later, can totally identify with Maya growing up as a black female. Still hoping for the best, preparing for the worst so that nothing surprises us.
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Casey Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars I really enjoyed this autobiographyReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 June 2020
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Maya Angelou’s autobiography was written really well. It didn’t feel like I was reading an autobiography at all, more like a fiction novel because it was so enjoyable to follow even though it covers some very important and slightly graphic topics.
This book addresses issue of molestation, rape and racism and it does this through the trials of Maya growing up. It does talk about these issue in quite a direct way, but it’s not so graphic where it would be uncomfortable to read. However, even if uncomfortable, this book would be very educative for everyone and mostly adolescents.
This book, I’m sure, isn’t intended to be a form of education. It’s an autobiography of Mayas life, what she went through as a child, which we could use as a form of learning. You need to however bear in mind that not everyone will find this book enjoyable. It’s not fiction, it’s real life. I enjoyed Mayas writing and learning about her life was an added learning bonus, that I find is very vital. I work with adolescents and I could easily take this into my work to make them more aware of these issues.
Maya (aged 3) was sent to her grandmother, along with her brother Bailey (aged 4) to Stamps, Arkansas. From Reading I found that Maya’s grandmother was a privileged Black person, as privileged as any Black person could be. However, her grandmother had a very strict and old-fashioned way of living. Maya was well educated and so was her brother. They went to good schools and was top of their classes.
Maya hardly knew her parents, and honestly I found them to be quite irresponsible. At age 8, Mayas father turned up to take her and Bailey to their Mothers, where they will be staying along with her Mothers lover. As the synopsis states, Maya was soon raped by her Mothers lover, however Maya seemed to not understand this at first. Who would at the age of 8. It was quite uncomfortable for me to read, I don’t regret it though.
‘He said, “Just stay right here, Ritie, I ain’t gonna hurt you.” I wasn’t afraid, a little apprehensive, maybe, but not afraid. Of course I knew that lots of people did ‘it’ and that they used their ‘things’ to accomplish the deed, but no one I knew had ever done it to anybody. Mr. Freeman pulled me to him, and put his hand between my legs.’
He done it again after that. I was furious with the situation, still am, as anyone would be.
You know considering how privileged her grandmother is in Stamps and how she selflessly helps out the White people, she is still under appreciated as a Black person. No matter how much she would help a white person, the colour of her skin alway set her apart. Like a situation where Maya had a toothache and the only dentist she could be taken to was the White one in Stamps. The White dentist said;
‘I’d rather stick my hand in a dog’s mouth than in a n*****’s.’
Mayas badass Momma took care of him though, an rightly so. I would love a grandmother like her.
I would highly recommend this book, an so would Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. So there is no excuse. Phenomenal writing and a vital learning experience
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Alicatz
5.0 out of 5 stars KnowingReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 7 January 2018
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I read this book many years ago whilst a teenager myself and loved it. I fell upon it again completely by accident and read it in a day and a half. It was better this time round as I have so much more understanding of the struggles, fights and hardness of life. I also recognise the sheer wonderment of the good things in life too. Her passions and loyalties, betrayals and endeavours are all told in a heart warming heart wrenching book that all should read or be studied at school like mice and men or to kill a mocking bird.
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