Overview
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 A. Long, and her niece Rosa Johnson Butler - it captures Angelou at home, at work, and in the public eye. Listeners who have come to know and love Maya Angelou will be surprised and delighted by this personal portrait of the renowned poet, author, playwright, and humanitarian.
Synopsis
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 A. Long, and her niece Rosa Johnson Butler - it captures Angelou at home, at work, and in the public eye. Listeners who have come to know and love Maya Angelou will be surprised and delighted by this personal 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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Editorials
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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
This joyful presentation of Angelou's life is the perfect evocation of the person she was and the person she became after a staggering string of adversities. Oprah Winfrey's foreword is excellent; she and Angelou share a striking number of experiences. Coauthors Gillespie and Richard A. Long are old friends of Angelou's, while contributor Rosa Johnson Butler is her niece. Angelou began life as Marguerite Johnson but eventually changed her name; she tried and excelled at many hobbies and careers, including author, singer, professor, playwright, gourmet cook, dancer (with Alvin Ailey), humanitarian, and especially poet. At age seven she was raped and stopped talking for six years. She had strong female influences, particularly her grandmother; later in life she grew closer to her difficult mother. In essence, Angelou lived the life about which she sings, writes, and speaks. Reader Dion Graham skillfully presents female intonation and emotion, commendable but rare from a male narrator. This splendid book covers great and small events in Angelou's life, with quotes and sources clearly cited; essential for all libraries.
—Susan G. Baird
School Library Journal
Adult/High School
This beautiful biography celebrates the life of the distinguished author, poet laureate, playwright, and civil rights activist. It includes her letters, notes, and writings, and more than 100 photographs of family and friends. Gillespie and Long, two of Angelou's close friends, and Johnson Butler, her niece, examine the 80-year-old Angelou's life from her rape at age eight, through her flourishing career in the United States, Egypt, and England, to the delivery of her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. This must-have, close-up account is a refreshing reminder that one can overcome adversity, succeed in life, and give back to community and friends.-Gregory Lum, Jesuit High School, Portland, OR