Maya Angelou

In this third self-contained volume of her autobiography, which began with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou moves into the adult world. Maya struggles to support herself and her son through a series of odd jobs and weathers a failed marriage to a white man before landing a gig singing in one of the most popular nightclubs on the San Francisco coast. From there, she is called to New York to join the cast of Porgy and Bess. Maya soon finds herself on a joyous and dramatic adventure, touring abroad through Italy, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Egypt with spirited cast members, and performing for large, enthusiastic audiences. The exciting experience is dampened only by Maya's nagging guilt that she has abandoned the person she loves most in life, her son, whose reentrance into her world reveals to Maya the healing power of devotion and love. Charged with Maya Angelou's remarkable sense of life and love, Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas is a unique celebration of the human condition-and an enthralling saga that has touched, inspired, and empowered readers worldwide.

In this second volume of her poignant autobiographical series, Maya Angelou powerfully captures the struggles and triumphs of her passionate life with dignity, wisdom, humor, and humanity. "A curiously heartening story in which decency, honor, truth, love do exist, imperfectly, fractionally and flickeringly, not in some Platonic realm of the ideal, but in the flawed lives of real men and women."--The Washington Post Gather Together in My Name continues Maya Angelou's personal story, begun so unforgettably in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The time is the end of World War II and there is a sense of optimism everywhere. Maya Angelou, still in her teens, has given birth to a son. But the next few years are difficult ones as she tries to find a place in the world for herself and her child. She goes from job to job-and from man to man. She tries to return home-back to Stamps, Arkansas-but discovers that she is no longer part of that world. Then Maya's life takes a dramatic turn, and she faces new challenges and temptations.

Maya Angelou's debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS's American Masters. Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou's debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "powhitetrash." At eight years old and back at her mother's side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age--and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors ("I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare") will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. "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

Maya Angelou's debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS's American Masters. Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou's debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "powhitetrash." At eight years old and back at her mother's side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age--and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors ("I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare") will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. "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

Celebrate Christmas with the joyous poetry of the incomparable Maya Angelou. Angelou s beautiful, moving, and beloved poem, which she first read at the 2005 White House tree-lighting ceremony, now comes alive as a fully illustrated children s book, celebrating the promise of peace in the holiday season. In this simple story, a family joins with their community rich and poor, black and white, Christian, Muslim, and Jew to celebrate the holidays. This special package includes an audio CD of the author reading the poem aloud."

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Maya Angelou shares her path to living well and with meaning in this absorbing book of personal essays. Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight. Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses of the tumultuous life that led Angelou to an exalted place in American letters and taught her lessons in compassion and fortitude: how she was brought up by her indomitable grandmother in segregated Arkansas, taken in at thirteen by her more worldly and less religious mother, and grew to be an awkward, six-foot-tall teenager whose first experience of loveless sex paradoxically left her with her greatest gift, a son. Whether she is recalling such lost friends as Coretta Scott King and Ossie Davis, extolling honesty, decrying vulgarity, explaining why becoming a Christian is a "lifelong endeavor," or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice-Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women she considers her extended family. Like the rest of her remarkable work, Letter to My Daughter entertains and teaches; it is a book to cherish, savor, re-read, and share. "I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish speaking, Native Americans and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you."--from Letter to My Daughter

Combining reminiscences with more than sixty of her personal recipes, the acclaimed author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings reflects on important moments of her life that centered around the dinner table and presents Minnesota wild rice, biscuits, potato salad, smoked pork chops, fried meat pies, pot roast, and other favorite dishes. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.

Throughout Maya Angelou's life food has played a pivotal role at important moments. In HALLELUJAH! THE WELCOME TABLE she narrates some of these tales and then gives us recipes for the food that helped shape her memories. There was the time she cooked a cassoulet for M. F. K. Fisher on the very day she moved into her new house in California. Or how her mother made a delicious maple cake for her when she was expelled from school for not being able to speak. Then there's a story about how once Decca (Jessica) Mitford made a delicious chicken - and the recipe is for 'Chicken Drunkard Style'. The recipes cover fried meat pies, caramel cake, Minnisota wild rice, chicken livers and many more. Maya Angelou's kitchen is a social centre, she cooks while she entertains and is renowned for what she serves.

An eloquent, inspirational, and timeless anthology of poems captures the extraordinary qualities that transcend everyday life and includes such acclaimed works as "On the Pulse of Morning," "Amazing Peace," "A Brave and Startling Truth," and "Mother." 125,000 first printing.

Perfect for Mother's Day, or for any day on which we wish to acknowledge this all-important bond, Mother is an awe-inspiring affirmation of the enduring love that exists in every corner of the globe. With her signature eloquence and heartfelt appreciation, renowned poet and national treasure Maya Angelou celebrates the first woman we ever knew: Mother. "You were always the heart of happiness to me," she acknowledges in this loving tribute, "Bringing nougats of glee / Sweets of open laughter." From the beginnings of this profound relationship through teenage rebellion and, finally, to adulthood, where we stand to inherit timeless maternal wisdom, Angelou praises the patience, knowledge, and compassion of this remarkable parent.

A Christmas poem, written for the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in 2005, celebrates the goodness of life, the value of peace, and the spirit of the season for those of all faiths.

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, 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.

The culmination of a unique achievement in modern American literature: the six volumes of autobiography that began more than thirty years ago with the appearance of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A Song Flung Up to Heaven opens as Maya Angelou returns from Africa to the United States to work with Malcolm X. But first she has to journey to California to be reunited with her mother and brother. No sooner does she arrive there than she learns that Malcolm X has been assassinated. Devastated, she tries to put her life back together, working on the stage in local theaters and even conducting a door-to-door survey in Watts. Then Watts explodes in violence, a riot she describes firsthand. Subsequently, on a trip to New York, she meets Martin Luther King, Jr., who asks her to become his coordinator in the North, and she visits black churches all over America to help support King's Poor People's March. But once again tragedy strikes. King is assassinated, and this time Angelou completely withdraws from the world, unable to deal with this horrible event. Finally, James Baldwin forces her out of isolation and insists that she accompany him to a dinner party--where the idea for writing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is born. In fact, A Song Flung Up to Heavenends as Maya Angelou begins to write the first sentences of Caged Bird.

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou's debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "powhitetrash." At eight years old and back at her mother's side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age--and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors ("I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare") will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. "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

Lessons of a lifetime from the author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMAWith her customary courage and humour - and always with style and grace - Maya Angelou reflects on the people and places she has known. She talks about Africa and ageing, she gives us a profile of her great friend and 'daughter' Oprah Winfrey, she sings the praises of sensuality. But here too are her thoughts on the end of a much-wanted marriage, confessions of rage and the importance of solitude. EVEN THE STARS LOOK LONESOME is the work of a wonderful woman who is not afraid to admit to the mistakes and vulnerabilities that make us human.'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

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - "Maya Angelou writes like a song, and like the truth."--The New York Times Book Review "Everything about Maya Angelou is transcendental. She has something to tell you now. Listen."--Robert Fulghum, The Washington Post Book World I have written of the black American experience, which I know intimately. I am always talking about the human condition in general and about society in particular. What it is like to be human, and American, what makes us weep, what makes us fall and stumble and somehow rise and go on. The compelling wisdom and deeply felt perceptions of Maya Angelou have been cherished by millions of readers. Now, in a continuation of her bestseller Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, she shares many of her most treasured personal experiences, reflecting on the ideas and inspirations that have touched her heart. Even the Stars Look Lonesome is a profound series of essays that explores aspects of life both big and small, with Maya Angelou serving as the unique, spellbinding guide to a powerful spiritual journey.

Rev. Beecher Hicks Jr. knows that great preaching and great storytelling go hand in hand. He believes in the power of imagination to teach us about God and about life, and he knows that nothing can spark the imagination like a story well told. In My Soul's Been Anchored, he presents vivid portrayals of the biblical truth shining through people he has known and experiences he has had. Family, friends, church members, neighbors. . .well-loved faces peer from these pages. In their warm humanity they illustrate simple, profound lessons that touch us all. You'll meet "Uncle Mugga," a woman poor in money but rich in love for neighborhood children. Reverend Jones, whose dentures flew out over the pupil in mid-prayer. Mother Jackson, everybody's mother at Second Baptist Church. Wilson McCray, who ran his shoes off praising God. Each person is a unique, creative snapshot -- sometimes funny, sometimes poignant -- of a living faith that helps us overcome obstacles, love God and each other more effectively, and make this world a better place. Dr. Hicks' stories read the way his sermons preach -- full of life, feeling, and beauty. My Soul's Been Anchored captures in print the oral tradition of the great African-American preachers -- the cadences, the rhythms, the passion, the urgency. And the vision. Dr. Hicks says, "This is a time to rise above our limitations and set our sights on those things that the world believes are beyond us." He encourages us to reach for purpose, to put our faith in motion, to never give up on our potential or God's promises. Here is storytelling at its finest from a gifted writer and preacher, with universal truths that speak to every culture.

In The Heart of a Woman Maya Angelou leaves California with her son, Guy, to go to New York. There she enters the society and world of black artists and writers. Not since her childhood has she lived in an almost black environment, and she is surprised at the obsession her new friends have with the white world around them. She stays for a while with John and Grace Killens and begins to read her writing at the Harlem Writers Guild. She continues to sing, most notably at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, but more and more she begins to take part in the struggle of black Americans for their rightful place in the world. She helps organize a benefit cabaret for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and then is appointed Martin Luther Kings Northern Coordinator. Shortly after that, through her friend Abbey Lincoln, she takes one of the lead parts in Genet's The Blacks (it was a remarkable cast, including Godfrey Cambridge, Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, Raymond St. Jacques, and Lou Gossett), and even writes music for the production. In the meantime her personal life has taken a tempestuous turn. She has left the New York bail bondsman she was intending to marry and has fallen in love with a South African freedom fighter named Vusumzi Make, who sweeps her off her feet and eventually takes her to London and then to Cairo, where, as her marriage begins to break up, she becomes the first female editor of the English-language magazine. The Heart of a Woman is filled with unforgettable vignettes of famous people, from Billie Holiday to Malcolm X, but perhaps most important is the story of Maya Angelou's relationship with her son. Because this book chronicles, finally, the joys and the burdens of a black mother in America and how the son she had cherished so intensely and worked for so devotedly finally grows to be a man.

"Maya Angelou writes like a song, and like the truth."--The New York Times Book Review "Black, bitter and beautiful, she speaks of our survival."--JAMES BALDWIN Tenderly, joyously, sometimes in sadness, sometimes in pain, Maya Angelou writes from the heart and celebrates life as only she has discovered it. In this moving volume of poetry, we hear the multi-faceted voice of one of the most powerful and vibrant writers of our time.

Maya Angelou, one of the best-loved authors of our time shares the wisdom of a remarkable life in this bestselling spiritual classic. This is Maya Angelou talking from the heart, down to earth and real, but also inspiring. This is a book to be treasured, a book about being in all ways a woman, about living well, about the power of the word, and about the power of spirituality to move and shape your life. Passionate, lively, and lyrical, Maya Angelou's latest unforgettable work offers a gem of truth on every page. Maya Angelou speaks out . . . On Faith: "I'm taken aback when people walk up to me and tell me they are Christians. My first response is the question 'Already' It seems to me a lifelong endeavor to try to live the life of a Christian. It is in the search itself that one finds ecstasy." On Racism: "It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter their color." On Taking Time for Ourselves: "Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us. A day away acts as a spring tonic. It can dispel rancor, transform indecision, and renew the spirit." On Death and Grieving: "When I sense myself filling with rage at the absence of a beloved, I try as soon as possible to remember that my concerns should be focused on what I can learn from my departed love. What legacy was left which can help me in the art of living a good life?" On Style: "Style is as unique and nontransferable and perfectly personal as a fingerprint. It is wise to take the time to develop one's own way of being, increasing those things one does well and eliminating the elements in one's character which can hinder and diminish the good personality."