Letter To My Daughter Maya Angelou Pdf
Whether she is recalling lost friends, extolling honesty or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice, Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women. Like the rest of her remarkable work, Letter to My Daughter entertains and teaches. It is a book to cherish, savour, reread and share.
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Preview — Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
Dedicated 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. Told in her own inimitable style, this book transcends genres and categori...more
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Favorite Quotes:
Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking.
I remind myself it is sufficient to know what I know, and that what I know, may not always be true.
[I] try to be present and accountable for all I do and leave undone.
This is a lovely series of Maya Angelou's essays dedicated to all women of the world. She shares some of her most touching life stories, divulges words of wisdom, and muses on those topics w...more
So speaks Maya Angelou in the Preface to Letter to My Daughter, her third book of essays. The book is a slim volume, containing twenty-eight short pieces, which are titled by theme. Examples are...more
'You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.'
I listened to Maya Angelou, with her mesmerizing voice, read her inspiring and thought provoking words written for the daughters she never had throughout the world. This book is full of wisdom and deep insight, and you cannot help but to be moved by this woman's generous spirit.
I highly recommend listening to this book and I thought the essays were so powerful I will be purchasing a c...more
It is a craving of 20somethings to be gently advised in life from those who have already gone through the same struggles. I...more
'Dedicated 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. Told in her own inimitable style, this book transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight.
Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses...more
Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.
There is a lot of wisdom in this little book. Maya Angelou gives us live lessons of her own to help guide us and make us understand why life is sometimes cruel.
She also added some beautiful poetry that gives this book a little extra something special.
I've never read any of her work before, but after this I'm definitely adding I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to my TBR pile.
However, towards the end I was slightly lost in the message but overall it’s Maya Angelou, she’s phenomenally woman.
A lot of wisdom in not so many pages.
Considered a strong woman figure with having an indomitable voice in social issues, she does not shy away from admitting her mistakes and shortcomings in this book. She talks about her personal struggles with love, depression, kindness, and faith. A healthy dose of humor is sprinkled throughout the book. You do not have to agree with everything she...more
A Letter To My Daughter Maya Angelou Pdf
it was amazing · review of another editionThis became Book Two in my inadvertent themed reading spree because I read it to directly compare with Book One, Between the World and Me. That was a letter to the author's son, this is a letter to the author's daughters, the two published less than a decade apart.
Unlike Coates' work, this one did res...more
I seriously just feel like she wrote this for all women, her daughters, and it’s a Must that we all read it. Will all of the lessons reach you how they should right now..not necessarily..but put them in your back pocket for later. Nothing wrong with being prepared.
You see, Dr. Angelou never had a daughter. She was the mother of one son, and she will tell you how he came to be in Letter to My Daughter because this is personal. This is what you want your mom or grandmom to whisper to you as the shucked peas plop into the sink.
Motherhood, her o...more
This book is a love letter. It's a book that says, these are the lessons that you do not have to learn for yourself. I get a little emotional when I think about it that way actually.
I finished it in couple of hours. When I was done, I had marked something...more
'Letter to my Daughter' is a collection of short essays through which Maya Angelou wishes to address the daughters she could never have with little nuggets of wisdom that she found useful in her own life. She shares various anecdotes, sometimes with hilarious undertones and sometimes with blunt viciousness.
Raised by two strong and level-headed women, Maya Angelou her...more
This book isn't like the storytelling in her autobiographies that are loved by so many. Rather it's a collection of her experiences, poetry, c...more
This slim volume has substance and unusual topics. What a remarkable life Maya Angelou lived and yet, how humble and thoughtful in her musings.
I was especially struck by several chapters. I loved that she echoed my feelings on vulgarity.
'We need to have the courage to say obesity is not funny and vulgarity is not amusing. Insolent children and submissive parents are not the chara...more
Only about 1/3 held life stories of universal wisdom while also showing a very humble (and funny) woman. I would have given this book a higher rating had there been more of these because I truly loved them. Some of my favourites were:
1) The Moroccan coffee experience
2) The rugs in a house in Senegal
3) The restaurant scene with the waitress and grits
I am not going to elaborate on th...more
pay note to her discussion on faith and god.
her coverage of race
her own dark...more
This brief summary accounts details from her life and experiences, her candid and sometimes provocative nature, the wisdom that living those moments has brought her. She never had a daughter of her own and saw glimpses in women around her and wanted to pass on some of her insights to these 'daughters'
I would mark it as a 5 but was slightly undone by the religious references. I tend to balk at any mention o...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houston County Pu...:May 2019 Group Read Discussion | 9 | 5 | May 31, 2019 11:38AM |
| Diversity in All ...:Letter To My Daughter (January 2018) | 6 | 43 | Jan 12, 2018 04:19AM |
| The Reading For P...:April - May Nonfiction Group Read - Letter to my Daughter by Maya Angelou | 38 | 30 | May 06, 2016 10:39AM |
| Goodreads Librari...:ISBN13: 9781400066124 | 2 | 13 | Jan 24, 2016 11:02AM |
| 2017 Reading Chal...:Letter to my Daughter by Maya Angelou | 1 | 7 | Nov 22, 2015 12:30PM |
| Message to My Daughter | 1 | 62 | Nov 21, 2008 09:29AM |
(Popular misquote of 'You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.')”
| Author | Maya Angelou |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Essays |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 2009 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 166 |
| ISBN | 978-0-8129-8003-5 |
| Preceded by | Even the Stars Look Lonesome |
Letter to My Daughter (2009) is the third book of essays by African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou. By the time it was published, Angelou had written two other books of essays, several volumes of poetry, and six autobiographies. She was recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for black people and women, and had become 'a major autobiographical voice of the time'.[1] Angelou had no daughters herself, but was inspired to write Letter as she was going through 20 years of notes and essay ideas, some of which were written for her friend Oprah Winfrey. Angelou wrote the book for the thousands of women who saw her as a mother figure, and to share the wisdom gained throughout her long life.
Letter consists of 28 short essays, which includes a few poems and a commencement address, and is dedicated to 'the daughter she never had'.[2] Reviews of the book were generally positive; most reviewers recognized that the book was full of Angelou's wisdom and that it read like words of advice from a beloved grandmother or aunt. One reviewer found the book's essays both homespun and 'hokey'.[3]
- 4References
Background[edit]
Letter to My Daughter is Maya Angelou's third book of essays.[note 1] She had published several volumes of poetry, including Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.[5] She had recited her poem, 'On the Pulse of Morning', at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993,[6] making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.[7] In 2009, when Letter was published, Angelou had published six out of her seven installments of her series of autobiographies. Her sixth autobiography, A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002), was considered her final autobiography[8] until she published her seventh autobiography, Mom & Me & Mom, in 2013, at the age of 85.[9]
Letter To My Daughter Maya Angelou Pdf Download
Angelou in the preface of Letter to My Daughter[10]
By the time Letter was published, Angelou had become recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for Blacks and women.[11] She was, as scholar Joanne Braxton has stated, 'without a doubt ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer'.[12] She had also become, as reviewer Richard Long stated, 'a major autobiographical voice of the time'.[1] Angelou was one of the first African-American female writers to publicly discuss her personal life, and one of the first to use herself as a central character in her books. Writer Julian Mayfield, who called her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 'a work of art that eludes description', stated that Angelou's series set a precedent not only for other Black women writers, but for the genre of autobiography as a whole.[4]
Overview[edit]
Angelou came up with Letter to My Daughter, which became a New York Times bestseller, while going through old boxes of notes and papers full of concepts for future books and poems, which she called 'WIP' ('Works in Progress'). She found twenty years worth of notes written to her friend Oprah Winfrey, and realized that she should put the essays they inspired into a book so that others could read them.[13] Although she had no daughters, and gave birth to a son (Guy Johnson), which she called 'the best thing that ever happened to me in my life',[3] many women in Angelou's career looked to her as a mother figure. She wrote Letters to speak to those women and to share with them the wisdom she has gained throughout her long life.[3] According to writer Gary Younge of The Guardian, most of the essays 'end with the kind of wisdom that, depending on your taste, qualifies as either homespun or hokey'.[3] For example, she uses what has been called her most famous statement,[14] when speaking of Cuban artist Celia Cruz: 'We are more alike than unalike'.[15][note 2] Although Angelou discounts the idea when he brings it up to her, Younge thinks Letter reads like an extended farewell; in her 500-word introduction she mentions death twice.[3]
Angelou in the preface of Letter to My Daughter[10]
Letter consists of 28 'short epistles',[3] which includes a few poems and a commencement address,[2] and is dedicated to 'the daughter she never had'.[13] Angelou thanks several women on her dedication page, which is divided into three groups. The first group of five women, which includes her grandmother Annie Henderson and her mother Vivian Baxter, she calls '...some women who mothered me through dark and bright days'. The second group has only one name, Dr. Dorothy Height, '...one woman who allows me to be a daughter to her, even today'. The final group is the largest, made up of 12 women, whom she calls 'women not born to me but who allow me to mother them'. The group includes Winfrey, Gayle King, her niece Rosa Johnson Butler, her assistant Lydia Stuckey, and gospel singer Valerie Simpson.[16]
Reviews[edit]
In his review of Letter to My Daughter, Younge states, 'At moments in the book she sounds like an elderly relative, distraught at the wayward manners of the young,' but also says that Angelou seems to have 'outlived the need for social convention'.[3]Kirkus Reviews finds 'old fashioned wisdom' in the book, and calls it 'a slim volume packed with nourishing nuggets of wisdom'.[17] Reviewer Karen Algeo Krizman says that 'Angelou delivers with her signature passion and fire' and that although the essays are 'easy to take in during brief moments of quiet', they have a powerful message.[2] Laura L. Hutchison of The Fredicksburg Free Lance-Star states that Letter is 'written in Angelou's beautiful, poetic style' and called the essays 'advice from a beloved aunt or grandmother, whose wisdom you know was earned'.[18] Hutchinson also stated that the book would gain Angelou new readers, and that her current audience would read and reread it.[18] Psychologists Eranda Jayawickreme and Marie J. C. Forgearda called the essays in Letter to My Daughter 'illuminating' and used it as a non-scientific, interdisciplinary text to teach positive psychology.[19]
Victoria Brownworth of The Baltimore Sun, who compares Angelou to populist poets such as Walt Whitman, notes that while reading Letter, 'one cannot help but be struck by how much Angelou has overcome and how far she has come'.[20] Brownworth states that despite Angelou's harrowing and complex experiences, and the barriers she had to overcome, Angelou was 'filled with life and generosity and a deep yearning to pass her story on to other young women'.[20] Brownworth calls Angelou's prose 'colloquial and from the heart'.[20] She also compares Angelou's 'fluid narrative' to oral history, and states, 'The kernels of insight and, yes, wisdom in this small volume will stay with the reader for a long time'.[20]
References[edit]
Explanatory notes[edit]
- ^Writer Hilton Als called Angelou's first two books of essays, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993) and Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997), her 'wisdom books' and 'homilies strung together with autobiographical texts'.[4]
- ^The line first appears in Angelou's poem 'Human Family', from her fifth collection of poetry I Shall Not Be Moved (1990), and again in her 1993 book of essays, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now.
Citations[edit]
- ^ abLong, Richard (November 2005). 'Maya Angelou'. Smithsonian36 (8): 84.
- ^ abcKrizman, Karen Algeo (09 October 2008). 'Maya Angelou shares life's lessons in 'Letter to My Daughter'.Archived 2013-12-28 at the Wayback MachineRocky Mountain News (Denver, Colorado). Retrieved 27 December 2013.
- ^ abcdefgYounge, Gary (13 November 2009). 'Maya Angelou: 'I'm fine as wine in the summertime'. The Guardian. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
- ^ abAls, Hilton (5 August 2002). 'Songbird: Maya Angelou Takes Another Look at Herself'. The New Yorker. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
- ^Moyer, Homer E. (2003), The R.A.T. Real-World Aptitude Test: Preparing Yourself for Leaving Home. Sterling, Virginia: Capital Books, p. 297. ISBN1-931868-42-5.
- ^Grenier, Richard (29 November 1993). 'Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (Book)'. National Review45 (23): 76.
- ^Manegold, Catherine S. (20 January 1993). 'An Afternoon with Maya Angelou; A Wordsmith at Her Inaugural Anvil'. The New York Times. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
- ^Connolly, Sherryl (14 April 2002). 'Angelou Puts Finishing Touches on the Last of Many Memoirs'.New York Daily News. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
- ^Gilmor, Susan (7 April 2013). 'Angelou: Writing about Mom emotional process'. Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
- ^ abAngelou, p. xii.
- ^'Maya Angelou'.Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
- ^Braxton, Joanne M. (1999). 'Symbolic Geography and Psychic Landscapes: A Conversation with Maya Angelou'. In Joanne M. Braxton. Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook. New York: Oxford Press, p. 4. ISBN0-19-511606-2.
- ^ abWaldron, Clarence (08 December 2008). 'Maya Angelou Tells What Inspired Her Latest Book.' Jet114 (21): 28.
- ^Lupton, Mary Jane (1998). Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, p. 20. ISBN978-0-313-30325-8.
- ^Angelou, p. 80.
- ^Letter to my Daughter dedication page.
- ^'Life lessons from the celebrated poet' (01 September 2008). Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
- ^ abHutchison, Laura L. (12 October 2008). 'Missive from a Women of Letters'.Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
- ^Jayawickreme, Eranda and Marie J.C. Forgearda (November 2011). 'Insight or data: Using non-scientific sources to teach positive psychology'. The Journal of Positive Psychology6 (6): 499—505.
- ^ abcdBrownworth, Victoria (05 October 2008). 'A heartfelt 'Letter', The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
External links[edit]
- Angelou reading preface to Letter to My Daughter(YouTube clip)