I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. by Angelou, Maya - 1969

New York: Random House, 1969. First edition, early printing of Angelou's critically acclaimed first book. Octavo, original cloth . Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Mrs. Susie Gilbert Joy! Maya Angelou Feb '76." Near fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket, name to the front free endpaper. Jacket design by Janet Halverson. Laid in is the original clipping of the Angelou reading. "This testimony from a black sister marks the beginning of a new era in the minds and hearts of all black men and women... I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity. I have no words for this achievement, but I know that not since the days of my childhood, when the people in books were more real than the people one saw every day, have I found myself so moved... Her portrait is a biblical study in life in the midst of death" (James Baldwin). Named by Modern Library as one of the 100 best non-fiction books of the twentieth century and by Time Magazine as one of the top 100 non-fiction books written in English since 1923.