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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Unknown - 2000

by Maya Angelou (Narrator) Maya Angelou (Author)


About this book

Titled after a stanza from Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “Sympathy,” I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first of a series of seven autobiographical novels by African-American poet and writer Maya Angelou. Personally deeply involved and affected by the civil rights movement, the volume explores racism and identity in her early life.  

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was nominated for the National Book Award in 1970. However, due to its depiction of controversial subjects such as sexuality, lesbianism and rape, the use of the novel in classrooms has been frequently challenged.

From the publisher

Maya Angelou's debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS's American Masters. Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou's debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "powhitetrash." At eight years old and back at her mother's side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age--and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors ("I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare") will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity."--James Baldwin

First Edition Identification

Random House published the first edition of the novel in 1969. Markings for a first edition are characteristic of the publisher with the words "First Edition" clearly stated on the copyright page. The first issue also has a red-stained top edge.

Details

  • Title I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
  • Author Maya Angelou (Narrator) Maya Angelou (Author)
  • Binding unknown
  • Edition Audio Book
  • Publisher Books On Tape, USA
  • Date 2000
  • ISBN 9780307879394

About the author

Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Heart of a Woman, she wrote numerous volumes of poetry, among them Phenomenal Woman, And Still I Rise, On the Pulse of Morning, and Mother. Maya Angelou died in 2014.