NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Maya Angelou’s classic memoirs have had an enduring impact on American literature and culture. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters.This Modern Library edition contains 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, … Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas, The Heart of a Woman, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, and A Song Flung Up to Heaven.
When I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published to widespread acclaim in 1969, Maya Angelou garnered the attention of an international audience with the triumphs and tragedies of her childhood in the American South. This soul-baring memoir launched a six-book epic spanning the sweep of the author’s incredible life. Now, for the first time, all six celebrated and bestselling autobiographies are available in this handsome one-volume edition.
Dedicated fans and newcomers alike can follow the continually absorbing chronicle of Angelou’s life: her formative childhood in Stamps, Arkansas; the birth of her son, Guy, at the end of World War II; her adventures traveling abroad with the famed cast of Porgy and Bess; her experience living in a black expatriate “colony” in Ghana; her intense involvement with the civil rights movement, including her association with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X; and, finally, the beginning of her writing career.
The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou traces the best and worst of the American experience in an achingly personal way. Angelou has chronicled her remarkable journey and inspired people of every generation and nationality to embrace life with commitment and passion.
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I haven’t finished it yet but so far I’ve read thru the 1st 2 1/2 memoirs in Maya’s collected autobios & I’ve Always Loved how reading her works – poetry & all of her other writings I’ve read thus far, truly, has helped me (along w/the love of/from my bf Tommy & our families) in overcoming my personal struggles w/my abuse at 5 y.o. I’ve had …
Every word Ms. Angelou put on paper touches us deep in our soul, and in our viscera. I started reading her early in my life, and every time I reread something she has written, I learn something new.
I absolutely Loved this book and would Highly Recommend it. Maya is a very talented, wonderful author and her stories and biography is fascinating and exciting to read. Makes you laugh and cry.
Maya is an amazing storyteller. I love her work!
Maya Angelou’s life is fascinating but even more inspirational. Far from the lives many of us led she has found ways to “rise” every time people tried to put her down. This is easy to read, draws you along effortlessly…but it also tells of pain and suffering, of prejudice and bigotry, of poor decisions made and yet life going on triumphantly.
Depth, wisdom and undulating poise in her narrative
It was real!
Maya Angelou !ASHA! !ASHA!
What a great collection of this great woman’s work. Her writing is a joy to read. She is a masterful story teller.
I read only one on this collection and that was long ago: I know why the caged bird sings. It is stunningly beautiful. Just as she was. I was lucky enough to hear her speak and it was an incredibly rich experience. I look forward to reading the rest of her works in this collection. We lost a great gem when she died.
Most people know the first bolume, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, but few have read the whole collection. I enjoy rereading her life story because it allows me to appreciate how far we have come, remind me of what work still needs to be done and reaffirm the more things change, the more they are the same. She’s inspiring to say the least and her …