Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration » (Bargain)

Marcia Ann Gillespie, a longtime friend of Dr. Angelou, was the editor in chief of Essence magazine from 1971 to 1980. She lives in New York City and is currently working on her memoir.

Rosa Johnson Butler is Dr. Angelou’s niece and archivist. She lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Richard A. Long has known Dr. Angelou for more than thirty years. He is the Atticus Haygood Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Emeritus, at Emory University. He lives in Atlanta.

Beautifully designed and featuring over 150 sepia portraits, family photographs, and letters from the life of one of the world’s most beloved and admired artists, this moving biography will appeal to all fans of the poet laureate, phenomenal bestselling author, and scribe for the people, Dr. Maya Angelou.

Maya Angelou’s memoirs, essay and poetry collections, and cookbooks have sold millions of copies. Now, MAYA ANGELOU: A GLORIOUS CELEBRATION offers an unusual and irresistible look at her life and her myriad interests and accomplishments. Created by the people who know her best—her longtime friends Marcia Ann Gillespie and Richard Long, and her niece Rosa Johnson Butler—it is part tribute, part scrapbook, capturing Angelou at home, at work, and in the public eye. Readers who have come to know and love Maya Angelou will be surprised and delighted by this personal, illustrated portrait of the renowned poet, author, playwright, and humanitarian.

Publishers Weekly

From the publication of her celebrated memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, to her reading of her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's first presidential inauguration, Maya Angelou (née Marguerite Johnson) has been an inspirational figure. In celebration of her 80th birthday (April 4, 2008), her friends Gillespie and Long, and her niece Butler, honor her life and accomplishments with a biographical tribute chock-full of photographs and snippets of Angelou's own writings. The authors trace her life from the self-imposed silence after her rape at eight through her voracious reading and the stream of words that began when she was 14 at the coaxing of an adult friend. After marrying Tosh Angelos, and bearing her son, Clyde, she ventured successfully into acting (when she changed her name to Maya Angelou) and activism alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, but always harbored the desire to write. As this book makes abundantly clear, Angelou's friends view her as a woman whose arms and home are always open and a loyal friend who respects others and loves good food and roaring laughter. (Apr.)

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Ch. 1 Truths told 5

Ch. 2 Becoming an artist 33

Ch. 3 Changing the world 53

Ch. 4 A daughter returns 67

Ch. 5 Blazing new trails 83

Ch. 6 Doing her work 117

Ch. 7 Life as art 147

Acknowledgments 181