Maya Angelou’s introductory notes for the screenplay of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, on Algonquin Hotel stationery. In 1978 Angelou worked on an adaptation of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings for the CBS television movie version of her memoir. She also continued to write poetry, dramatic works, and screenplays. Three of Angelou’s later autobiographical works, ZSR Special Collections The book was a critical and popular success, and it brought Angelou to the attention of national media as an important new voice in American literature.Īngelou eventually wrote five more autobiographical works. Dedication page from the first edition of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, ZSR Special Collections I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is dedicated to her son, Guy Johnson. The book ends with Maya becoming a mother at age 16. Published in 1969, the book chronicles Angelou’s life from the age of three, when she and her brother Bailey were sent to live with their paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas.ĭust jacket description from the first edition of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, ZSR Special Collections First edition title page, ZSR Special Collections The result was Angelou’s most widely read book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. With help from James Baldwin, Loomis persuaded the initially reluctant Angelou to write a memoir.
The Feiffers, immediately taken with Angelou’s fascinating history and storytelling flair, contacted Random House editor Robert Loomis.
A recent project– writing, producing, and hosting the PBS series Blacks, Blues, Black- had brought her to California, where she met Jules and Judy Feiffer. In 1968 she was active in the civil rights movement and had a busy and successful career as a poet, playwright, performer, and educator. Maya Angelou (1928-2014) never intended to write an autobiography. Dust jacket from first edition of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, ZSR Special Collections
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