I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a 1969 autobiography describing the early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou. Angelou was challenged by her friend author James Baldwin, and her editor, Robert Loomis, to write an autobiography that was also a piece of literature. The book was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970 and remained on The New York Times paperback bestseller list for two years. It has been used in educational settings from high schools to universities, and the book has been celebrated for creating new literary avenues for the American memoir.
About I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in brief
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a 1969 autobiography describing the early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou. Angelou was challenged by her friend author James Baldwin, and her editor, Robert Loomis, to write an autobiography that was also a piece of literature. The book was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970 and remained on The New York Times paperback bestseller list for two years. It has been used in educational settings from high schools to universities, and the book has been celebrated for creating new literary avenues for the American memoir. However, the book’s graphic depiction of childhood rape, racism, and sexuality has caused it to be challenged or banned in some schools and libraries. The first in a seven-volume series, it is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of character and a love of literature can help overcome racism and trauma. It covers topics common to autobiographies written by Black American women in the years following the Civil Rights Movement: a celebration of Black motherhood; a critique of racism; the importance of family; and the quest for independence, personal dignity, and self-definition. It also writes in new ways about women’s lives in a male-dominated society. In the course of the book, Maya transforms from a victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a self-possessed, dignified young woman capable of responding to prejudice.
At first, Angelou refused to write a book since she thought of herself as a poet and playwright. According to Angelou, Baldwin had a ‘covert hand’ in getting her to write the book. After she began writing, she was unable to resist the challenge and began writing the book and CagedBird was released in 1969. It was the first of a series of seven books about the life of Angelou and her daughter, Maya, who was born in 1961. The second book of the series will be published in 2011. The third and fourth volumes will be released in 2012 and 2013. The fifth and sixth volumes will come out in 2014 and 2015. The final volume will be available in 2015 and 2016. It will be the last volume of the seven- volume series, which will be called The Caged Birds of Maya. It is the first in the series to be published by Random House, a division of Random House. The last volume will come in 2016 and 2017, and it will be entitled The Last Bird of Maya, a collection of short stories about Maya’s childhood and growing up in Arkansas. The fourth and final volume is due out in 2018 and will be titled The Last Cagedbird of Maya and will cover Maya’s teenage years in Stamps, Arkansas, and Maya’s early years as a mother. The sixth and finalvolume will be written by Angelou in the fall of 2018. The seventh volume is entitled The First Bird of May, a memoir of Maya’s life as a young woman in Arkansas in the 1960s and 1970s.
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