Authors: Phyllis Rose (Editor), Phyllis Rose
ISBN-13: 9780393312904, ISBN-10: 0393312909
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Date Published: April 1995
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Phyllis Rose is the author of Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages and other noted works of biography and criticism. She is professor of English at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
"This remarkable and wide-ranging collection, full of surprises, should encourage any woman who is trying to survive in a man's world, and enlighten any man who sincerely wants to understand contemporary women." —Alison Lurie
Because of the breadth and richness of these 61 selections, which demonstrate the evolution of women's autobiographical writing, this anthology is destined to become a classic. Works of the famous, i.e., Helen Keller and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, are interspersed with those not publicly known. There are landmark passages from Anne Frank, Mary McCarthy, and Anais Nin, women whose names are synonymous with the diary form. Many passages represent the experiences of political activists like Bernadette Devlin. The collection is multicultural in scope, ranging, for example, from the poetry of Maya Angelou in the United States to the oral autobiography of Nisa, an African tribal member. The emphasis is upon experience rather than literary quality, resulting in the inclusion of passages not readily available elsewhere. The selections are alphabetically arranged, and the introductory material about each author helpfully refers the reader to related passages. Recommended for public and academic library collections.-- Mary Ellen Beck, Troy P.L., N.Y.
Introduction | 11 | |
From I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings | 41 | |
From The Prime of Life | 53 | |
From The Italics Are Mine | 68 | |
From Testament of Youth | 78 | |
From A Life of Her Own | 87 | |
From Life and Death in Shanghai | 109 | |
From Silent Dancing | 129 | |
From My Apprenticeships | 144 | |
From The Road from Coornin | 153 | |
From Notes | 173 | |
From The Price of My Soul | 187 | |
From The White Album | 197 | |
From An American Childhood | 210 | |
From Out of Africa | 219 | |
From The War | 232 | |
From As They Were | 245 | |
From An Angel at My Table | 253 | |
From Diary | 275 | |
From Journey into the Whirlwind | 299 | |
From Family Sayings | 318 | |
From Fierce Attachments | 332 | |
From Times and Places | 344 | |
From When Heaven and Earth Changed Places | 360 | |
From Pentimento | 376 | |
From Lost in Translation | 387 | |
From Lady Sings the Blues | 402 | |
From Mules and Men | 406 | |
From Diary | 422 | |
From Minor Characters | 431 | |
From The Story of My Life | 444 | |
From The Woman Warrior | 452 | |
From Totto-Chan | 470 | |
From Gift from the Sea | 477 | |
From Motherwit | 483 | |
From Zami: A New Seeing of My Name | 496 | |
From West with the Night | 518 | |
From Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life | 530 | |
From Memories of a Catholic Girlhood | 539 | |
From Blackberry Winter | 555 | |
From The Loony-Bin Trip | 569 | |
From Daughters and Rebels | 576 | |
From Coming of Age in Mississippi | 591 | |
From Memoir of a Modernist's Daughter | 605 | |
From Diary | 615 | |
From A Daughter of Han | 630 | |
From Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman | 636 | |
From Art & Ardor | 657 | |
From Diary | 664 | |
From Gifts of Passage | 671 | |
From Cross Creek | 685 | |
From Confession | 693 | |
From The Measure of My Days | 703 | |
From Bronx Primitive | 707 | |
From Landscape for a Good Woman | 715 | |
From The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas | 725 | |
From Meatless Days | 730 | |
From Leftover Life to Kill | 743 | |
From Diary | 759 | |
From Daybook | 774 | |
From Berlin Diaries | 785 | |
From Diary | 795 | |
Acknowledgments | 811 | |
Copyright Notices | 813 | |
Index | 817 |