Reprinted by permission of Mari Evans.Īlfred A. Mari Evans: Excerpt from “I Am A Black Woman” from I Am A Black Woman by Mari Evans (New York: William Morrow, 1970). Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material: You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish speaking, Native Americans and Aleut. “I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. Like the rest of her remarkable work, Letter to My Daughter entertains and teaches it is a book to cherish, savor, and share. Whether she is recalling such lost friends as Coretta Scott King and Ossie Davis, extolling honesty, decrying vulgarity, explaining why becoming a Christian is a “lifelong endeavor,” or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice–Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women she considers her extended family. Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses of the tumultuous life that led Angelou to an exalted place in American letters and taught her lessons in compassion and fortitude: how she was brought up by her indomitable grandmother in segregated Arkansas, taken in at thirteen by her more worldly and less religious mother, and grew to be an awkward, six-foot-tall teenager whose first experience of loveless sex paradoxically left her with her greatest gift, a son. Told in her own inimitable style, this book transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight. For a world of devoted fans, a much-awaited new volume of absorbing stories and inspirational wisdom from one of our best-loved writers.ĭedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou’s path to living well and living a life with meaning.

Maya angelou letter to my daughter poem