Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

Angelou's fourth autobiographical volume proceeds from her departure from California with her son, Guy, through her early years in Harlem and the civil-rights movement, in London and Cairo and the breakup of her marriage.

The author describes her odyssey to Ghana in the 1960s, meant as a return to her African roots. Over a few years she transformed herself by learning to speak Fanti, dressing in Ghanian style and delving in politics. But after encountering racial prejudice and losing her son in a car crash, she returned to America.

In the early eighties, the peaceful, reclusive life of poet and writer Alice Walker was interrupted by the appearance of three extraordinary gifts: a widely praised best-selling novel (The Color Purple), the Pulitzer Prize, and an offer from Steven Spielberg to make her novel into a film that would become a major international event. This last gift, which Walker identifies as "the knock at the door," led her into the labyrinth of a never-before-experienced...

An account of how Maya Angelou became an actress, a dancer, a TV producer, and a famous writer.