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Gather Together in My Name continues Maya Angelou’s personal story,
begun so unforgettably in I Know Why
the Caged Bird Sings. The time is the
end of World War II and there is a
sense of optimism everywhere. Maya
Angelou, still in her teens, has given
birth to a son. But the next few years
are difficult ones as she tries to find a
place in the world for herself and her
child. She goes from job to job–and
from man to man. She tries to return
home–back to Stamps, Arkansas–but
discovers that she is no longer part of
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.
In this third self-contained volume of
her autobiography, which began with I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya
Angelou moves into the adult world.
Maya struggles to support herself and
her son through a series of odd jobs and
weathers a failed marriage to a white
man before landing a gig singing in one
of the most popular nightclubs on the
San Francisco coast. From there, she is
called to New York to join the cast of
Porgy and Bess. Maya soon finds herself on a joyous and dramatic adventure, touring abroad through Italy,
In The Heart of a Woman, Maya Angelou
leaves California with her son, Guy, to move
to New York. There she enters the society
and world of black artists and writers, reads
her work at the Harlem Writers Guild, and
begins to take part in the struggle of black
Americans for their rightful place in the
world. In the meantime, her personal life
takes an unexpected turn. She leaves the bail
bondsman she was intending to marry after
falling in love with a South African freedom
fighter, travels with him to London and Cairo, where she discovers new opportunities.
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