Southeastern States - Regional Biography, North & South Carolina - Regional Biography, African American General Biography

Mary, Wayfarer

Name: Mary, Wayfarer
Author: Mary E. Mebane
ISBN: 9780670459605

by Mary E. Mebane

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Overview

Continuing the candid autobiography begun in Mary, this book is an uncompromising account of what it was like to be black, highly educated, and independent in the South during the 1950s and 1960s. Mary Mebane recounts her years as a high school teacher, college instructor, Ph.D. student, and finally, professor. Despite her achievements, she believes that she will never really be accepted in any community, black or white.

Mary, Wayfarer chronicles Mebane's struggle to create meaning in her life, her pride as a participant in and observer of the black freedom struggle, her encounters with such important figures as Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Malcolm X, and her joy upon finally discovering what she calls "the gulf stream" of her life, writing.

About the Author, Mary E. Mebane

Mary E. Mebane (1933-1992) was a graduate of North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned a Ph.D. in English. She taught at the University of South Carolina and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and was also a frequent contributor to the op-ed page of theNew York Times.

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Editorials

Library Journal

Mebane's two-volume autobiography "is told through a series of vignettes of life in a rural black community and of [the] struggle to rise above her environment without repudiating it." LJ's reviewer found that while the "prose is simple, the concepts expressed are complex," giving the duo "historical as well as literary value" (LJ 1/1/81). Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.