I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Description

Now the basis of a major Radio 4 drama, Maya Angelou’s debut memoir paints a portrait of “a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman” (Barack Obama).

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has become a beloved classic, admired worldwide. Angelou’s six volumes of autobiography stand as a testament to her extraordinary talent and unyielding resilience. She embraces the beauty of the world while never ignoring its cruelty.

As a Black woman, Angelou endured discrimination and extreme poverty, yet she also discovered hope, joy, achievement, and celebration. In this first volume, she vividly recalls her childhood with her grandmother in the American South of the 1930s. She learns early of the power held by the white community across town and suffers the devastating trauma of rape at the hands of her mother’s lover.

Yet far from being dispiriting, the memoir radiates strength. As James Baldwin observed, “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.”

Reflecting on her work, Angelou herself once said:
“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.”