''Letter to My Daughter'' (2009) is the third book of essays by African-American writer and poet
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and ...
. 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".
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
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...
. 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".
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".
Background
''Letter to My Daughter'' is
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and ...
's third book of essays. She had published several volumes of poetry, including ''
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie
''Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie'' (1971) is the first collection of poems by African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou. Many of the poems in ''Diiie'' were originally song lyrics, written during Angelou's career as a night ...
'' (1971), which was nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
. She had recited her poem, "
On the Pulse of Morning
"On the Pulse of Morning" is a poem by writer and poet Maya Angelou that she read at the First inauguration of Bill Clinton, first inauguration of President Bill Clinton on January 20, 1993. With her public recitation, Angelou became the sec ...
", at the
inauguration
In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugu ...
of President
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
in 1993, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloq ...
at
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
's
inauguration
In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugu ...
in 1961. 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
''A Song Flung Up to Heaven'' is the sixth book in author Maya Angelou's series of autobiographies. Set between 1965 and 1968, it begins where Angelou's previous book ''All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes'' ends, with Angelou's trip from Ac ...
'' (2002), was considered her final autobiography until she published her seventh autobiography, ''
Mom & Me & Mom
''Mom & Me & Mom'' (2013) is the seventh and final book in author Maya Angelou's series of autobiographies. The book was published shortly before Mother's Day and Angelou's 85th birthday. It focuses, for the first time in her books, on Angelo ...
'', in 2013, at the age of 85.
By the time ''Letter'' was published, Angelou had become recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for Blacks and women. She was, as scholar
Joanne Braxton has stated, "without a doubt ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer". She had also become, as reviewer
Richard Long stated, "a major autobiographical voice of the time".
[Long, Richard (November 2005). "Maya Angelou". ''Smithsonian'' 36 (8): 84.] 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
Julian Hudson Mayfield (June 6, 1928 – October 20, 1984) was an American actor, director, writer, lecturer and civil rights activist.
Early life
Julian Hudson Mayfield was born on June 6, 1928, in Greer, South Carolina, and was raised from ...
, who called her first autobiography, ''
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
''I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'' is a 1969 autobiography describing the young and early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou. The first in a seven-volume series, it is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of charact ...
'', "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.
Overview
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
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...
, and realized that she should put the essays they inspired into a book so that others could read them.
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",
[Younge, Gary (13 November 2009)]
"Maya Angelou: 'I'm fine as wine in the summertime'"
''The Guardian''. Retrieved 27 December 2013. 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.
According to writer
Gary Younge
Gary Andrew Younge , (born January 1969) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and academic. He was editor-at-large for ''The Guardian'' newspaper, which he joined in 1993. In November 2019, it was announced that Younge had been appointe ...
of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', most of the essays "end with the kind of wisdom that, depending on your taste, qualifies as either homespun or hokey".
For example, she uses what has been called her most famous statement, when speaking of Cuban artist
Celia Cruz
Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21 October 1925 – 16 July 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a naturalized Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during t ...
: "We are more alike than unalike". 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.
''Letter'' consists of 28 "short epistles",
which includes a few poems and a commencement address,
[Krizman, Karen Algeo (09 October 2008)]
"Maya Angelou shares life's lessons in 'Letter to My Daughter'".
''Rocky Mountain News'' (Denver, Colorado). Retrieved 27 December 2013. and is dedicated to "the daughter she never had".
[Waldron, Clarence (08 December 2008). "Maya Angelou Tells What Inspired Her Latest Book." ''Jet'' 114 (21): 28.] 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
Dorothy Irene Height (March 24, 1912 – April 20, 2010) was an African American civil rights and women's rights activist. She focused on the issues of African American women, including unemployment, illiteracy, and voter awareness. Height is cr ...
, "...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
Gayle King (born December 28, 1954) is an American television personality, author and broadcast journalist for CBS News, co-hosting its flagship morning program, ''CBS Mornings'', and before that its predecessor ''CBS This Morning''. She is al ...
, her niece Rosa Johnson Butler, her assistant Lydia Stuckey, and gospel singer
Valerie Simpson
Ashford & Simpson were an American husband-and-wife songwriting-production team and recording duo of Nickolas Ashford (May 4, 1941 – August 22, 2011) and Valerie Simpson (born August 26, 1946).
Ashford was born in Fairfield, South Carolina, ...
.
Reviews
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".
''Kirkus Reviews'' finds "old fashioned wisdom" in the book, and calls it "a slim volume packed with nourishing nuggets of wisdom". 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.
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".
[Hutchison, Laura L. (12 October 2008)]
"Missive from a Women of Letters".
''Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star.'' Retrieved 27 December 2013. Hutchinson also stated that the book would gain Angelou new readers, and that her current audience would read and reread it.
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.
[Jayawickreme, Eranda and Marie J.C. Forgearda (November 2011). "Insight or data: Using non-scientific sources to teach positive psychology". ''The Journal of Positive Psychology'' 6 (6): 499—505.]
Victoria Brownworth of ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'', who compares Angelou to populist poets such as
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...
, notes that while reading ''Letter'', "one cannot help but be struck by how much Angelou has overcome and how far she has come".
[Brownworth, Victoria (05 October 2008)]
"A heartfelt 'Letter'"
''The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
''. Retrieved 27 December 2013. 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".
Brownworth calls Angelou's prose "colloquial and from the heart".
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".
References
Explanatory notes
Citations
External links
* Angelou reading preface to ''Letter to My Daughter'
(YouTube clip)
{{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction
2009 non-fiction books
2009 poetry books
Books by Maya Angelou
Random House books
American essay collections
American poetry collections