Maya Angelou: The Iconic Self, 2nd Edition

245 Pages·2016·1.47 MB·English

by  Angelou

Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
The Iconic Self
MARY JANE LUPTON
Copyright © 2016 by ABC-CLIO, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of
brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher.
The author and the publisher gratefully acknowledge permission for use of
material from Mary Jane Lupton’s interview (“Talking with an Icon”) with Maya
Angelou on June 16, 1997.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lupton, Mary Jane.
 Maya Angelou : the iconic self / Mary Jane Lupton. — Second edition.
  pages cm
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-1-4408-3758-6 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-4408-3759-3  1. Angelou,
Maya—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Women and literature—United States—
History—20th century. 3. African Americans in literature. I. Title.
 PS3551.N464Z7578 2016
 818’.5409—dc23   2015032345
ISBN: 978-1-4408-3758-6
EISBN: 978-1-4408-3759-3
20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5
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Contents
Acknowledgments
1. The Life and Works of Maya Angelou
2. The Genre of Autobiography
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970)
4. Gather Together in My Name (1974)
5. Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1976)
6. The Heart of a Woman (1981)
7. All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986)
8. A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002)
9. In Memoriam
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Without the support of the late Dolly A. McPherson, professor of English at Wake
Forest University, the first edition of this book, Maya Angelou: A Critical
Companion, might not have been realized. I first met Professor McPherson at a
conference of the Mid-Atlantic Writers’ Association held in Baltimore in 1990.
Her book, Order Out of Chaos, published in that same year, was the first book-
length study of Angelou’s autobiographical works. McPherson, a long-time
personal friend of Angelou’s, had supported my work since that conference and
had offered assistance on numerous occasions. Through her, Maya Angelou
became aware of my interest in her autobiographies. Through her, I was finally
successful in arranging an interview.
I am deeply grateful to Maya Angelou for her writings, her vitality, and her
kindness. I thank her for being so gracious to me and my husband, Kenneth H.
Baldwin, on the afternoon and night of June 16 and the morning of June 17, 1997.
My husband, then chair of the English department at the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County, though extremely busy, still had the time to offer substantial
support: counting words and citations at several stages in the manuscript,
shopping for groceries, dealing with computer repairs, checking the Internet,
driving me to Winston-Salem. I am grateful for his love, reassurance, and
tolerance, especially during the final three months of the initial project.
To my daughters and their families—Julia on the West Coast and Ellen on the
East—I am thankful for the phone calls, the questions, the encouragement. Of the
friends who encouraged me in pursuing the field of Black Studies, I am indebted
above all to my mentor, Harry L. Jones (1924–1997), professor emeritus of
Morgan State University. I am also grateful to Aimee Wiest who, since we first
met in the early 1970s, has always affectionately supported my writing. She was
with me during my first exhilarating but brief meeting with Maya Angelou in
1995, following her lecture at Towson State University. Aimee, sensing my
hesitation at the prearranged interview, literally pushed me into Angelou’s
waiting limousine.
Many friends, colleagues, and graduate students at Morgan State University
contributed to this project, among them John Clarke, Eugenia Collier, Shirley
Meckler, Jennifer Kreshtool, Linda Meyers, Margaret Reid, Valerie Sedlak, Ella
Stevens, Minnie Washington, and Elaine Tsubota. I am also grateful to my
students in English 102, who for almost a decade had been writing their research
papers on I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, sharing their insights and anger and
forcing me to be clear about my assumptions.
I wish to acknowledge the following women from North Carolina: Mildred
Garris and Alma M. Golden of Dr. Angelou’s office at Wake Forest University;
Rose Johnson, who welcomed Ken and me when we visited her aunt, Maya
Angelou; Sharon E. Snow, curator at the Wake Forest Library; and Joyce Ford.
I am indebted to Dr. Earl Richardson, past president of Morgan State
University, for having granted me a sabbatical for the fall semester of 1997 so that
I could complete my study of Angelou’s autobiographies. I wish also to thank
Kathleen Gregory Klein, the editor of the Greenwood Critical Companion Series.
Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion, initially published in 1998, was part of that
series, which has since been discontinued.
I retired from Morgan State University in 2001. Maya Angelou: The Iconic Self
was written in the resort town of Cape May, New Jersey, a beautiful location but
far from the support of an academic community. I have made numerous changes
in this expanded revision, from a few overlooked errors in spelling, punctuation,
and dates to major additions to the text in order to include Maya Angelou’s
literary and cultural contributions since 1998. Maya Angelou: The Iconic Self
retains the structure of the original: two introductory chapters followed by
individual chapters on each of the autobiographies. Each of the individual
discussions ends with an alternative reading. The new edition is more attentive to
her poetry. There is an added chapter about the sixth autobiography as well as a
greatly expanded bibliography. The Iconic Self also takes into account the
enormous public response to her death.
Fortunately, I was able to rely on the skills, talents, and encouragement of my
scholarly family as I wrote this second edition. My daughter Ellen Lupton is
director of the MFA program in Graphic Design at the Maryland Institute of Art
in Baltimore and Curator of Contemporary Design at the Cooper-Hewitt
National Design Museum in New York. Ellen worked closely with me on June 11,
2015, as we viewed the Maya Angelou Archives at the Manuscripts, Archives and
Rare Books Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She
has also offered invaluable technical assistance.
My daughter Julia Reinhard Lupton, associate dean of research, School of
Humanities, the University of California, Irvine, worked diligently with me on
downloading, file-saving, electronic editing, and other technical problems that I
had not encountered while writing the first edition. She served as the liaison
between me and my editor at Greenwood/CLIO, Kimberly Kennedy-White.
Through their combined help I was able to acquire a Word document of the first
edition from which I could make the necessary additions and revisions.
Throughout this writing my husband, Kenneth H. Baldwin, has listened to my
interpretations, done extensive proofreading, searched the Internet, offered
pertinent criticism, suggested revisions, and entertained me with his amazing wit.
When he retired from his position as chair of the English department at the
University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in 2006, I jokingly provided him with
a scholarship to attend real estate school. He soon became qualified as an
instructor and began teaching courses, primarily to brokers. Eventually he
founded the Cape Atlantic School of Real Estate in Seaville, New Jersey, where
his students affectionately call him “Doc.”
I thank Steven Fullwood, assistant curator of the Manuscripts, Archives, and
Rare Books division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, for
his invaluable assistance prior to my visit to the Schomburg Center on June 11,
2015. During our visit his staff worked tirelessly in providing box after box of
papers, drafts, and documents relevant to Maya Angelou’s life and writing.
I thank Dolan Hubbard, my former chair at Morgan State University, and
Carolyn Maun, director of Graduate Studies in English at Wayne State
University, for putting me in touch with Sandra Shannon, editor of the College
Language Association Journal. Professor Shannon personally invited me to
contribute an essay on Angelou’s poetry for a commemorative issue on Maya
Angelou, now in press. Cheryl Wall, guest editor of the Special Issue on Angelou,
subsequently invited me to read a paper on Angelou’s poetry at the CLA
conference in Dallas in April 2015.
I am deeply indebted to Kim Kennedy White, senior acquisitions editor,
American Mosaic, ABC-CLIO, for having immediately responded to my query
about a possible second edition of Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion. I sent
her a proposal, which she submitted to the advisory board. The board acted
quickly and favorably, granting me a very reasonable amount of time to complete
the project.
I thank Victoria Allen, the widow of Julian Allen, for granting permission to
use her husband’s illustration of Maya Angelou for the cover of this book. I thank
my brother and sister-in-law, Jack and Carol Ann Hohman, for having gifted me
with Maya Angelou’s cookbook Halleluljah! The Welcome Table on Christmas
Eve, 2004. I thank Caroline Maun for the Angelou wind chimes and Charlotte
Todd for the Maya Angelou greeting card. I thank my friends from Baltimore,
and most particularly Jo-Ann Pilardi, for sending me information on Maya
Angelou and for encouraging me in this project.
Finally, I thank my friends in Cape May (especially Penny and Dale Hardin
and Joan Thomas) and my friends at Macedonia Baptist Church (especially Lois
Smith, Florence Carter, Jackie and Larry Hogan, Peggy Ose, and Pastor Kathy
Smallwood Johnson) for their support and tolerance.