Autobiographies
Titles in the Autobiographies Theme:
In the American Library Association’s Let’s Talk About It theme pamphlet, “The Journey Inward: Women’s Autobiography (1987),” scholar Elizabeth Bauer tell us, “All humans share certain experiences, yet only some have the urge to record these experiences. . . . Memory and truth in autobiography are inextricably related. Sometimes memory lies, sometimes it offers up painful truth; sometimes it gives a writer welcome insights into his or her life and work.” Speculating on the motivation of the author is part of the challenge in reading an autobiography—and what is left out may be as important as what is included. We invite you to explore, through reading and discussion, some interesting lives—several writers, a Sioux holy man, an anthropologist, an artist, a founding father, a pilot, and several “ordinary” people. All were propelled by their intelligence, curiosity, life circumstances, and a drive to live outside boundaries that allowed them to triumph over adversity and make a mark on the world. Discover what their stories say about the human condition and our lives today. One Writer’s Beginnings (1984) focuses simultaneously on Welty’s archetypal turn-of-the-century childhood in Mississippi and on her development as a writer. Welty’s notion of "continuous thread of revelation" confirms Estelle Jelinek’s observation about the fragmented nature of women’s autobiography, while providing an exquisite phrase with which to describe how autobiography is written. This slim volume introduces readers to one of the 20th Century's most gifted writers of short stories. Welty writes of the influence of parents, books, trips, and teachers on her writing (American Library Association, 1987). Further Information on Eudora Welty
http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwewn/
www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/welty_eudora/
www.eudorawelty.org/
www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/22/specials/welty.html
www.textsandtech.org/orgs/ews/
http://library.millsaps.edu/library/administration/eudora.shtml
West with the Night (1942) recounts Beryl Markham’s childhood in East Africa where she was taken from England at age 4 to be raised by her father, who trained and bred horses. She grew to be an accomplished horsewoman herself, but in the 1930's Markham turned to aviation, flying mail, passengers, and supplies to remote corners of Africa. In 1936, she flew solo crossing of the Atlantic from east to west. Markham’s exploits and adventures are recorded with beauty of language, laced with more than a dollop of bravado. She clearly relishes going where no woman has gone before. Further Information on Beryl Markham
http://www.karenblixen.com/beryl.html
http://www.unc.edu/~ottotwo/authorandhero.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/beryl-markham
"Against Prevailing Winds — The Remarkable Life of Beryl Markham" by Jackie Kruper (January/February 2000) Book Reviews of West With the Night
http://users.aol.com/dmchess/www/wwn.html
http://www.storycircle.org/Reading_Circle/questions/9902.html Print Resources Lovell, Mary S. Straight on Till Morning: The Biography of Beryl Markham St Martins Press, 1987. ISBN 0-31201-096-6 Trzebinski, Errol.The Lives of Beryl Markham. New York: W.W. Norton. 1993. ISBN 0-393-03556-5. Dust Tracks on a Road (1942) writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston’s autobiography, employs the journey metaphor throughout as she describes herself as a "pilgrim" and her life as a journey or "pilgrimage." Hurston recounts an early longing to "walk out to the horizon"; when travel appears to be an impossibility, she takes the alternative so many women have chose: "So I was driven inward. I lived an exciting life unseen." A major figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston died in anonymity only to be rediscovered in the 1980s in African American Studies and Women’s Studies programs. Hurston’s autobiography is the description of her dual journeys–internal and external (American Library Association, 1987). Further Information on Zora Neal Hurston
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/hurston.htm
http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~gallaher/hurston/hurston.html
www.nathanielturner.com/zoranealehurston.htm
www.st-lucie.lib.fl.us/zora/kiosks.htm Book Review of Dust Tracks on the Road
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_n3_v32/ai_21232160 My Life (1927) ), the autobiography of dancer Isadora Duncan, begins with the author doubting her ability to express herself in words: "I confess that when it was first proposed to me, I had a terror of writing this book." Duncan also quails before the task of telling the truth about herself. Duncan’s effort to be truthful with her readers results in a candor that is at times sweet, chilling, hilarious, and shocking. She talks of her intellectual absorption: days spent studying Greek vases in the Louvre or building a temple in Athens. She tells us in detail about her sexual encounters and her experience of labor and childbirth. She shares her unorthodox views on marriage and her temptation to commit suicide. Her life was lived on the edge of convention, of financial security, of intellectual currents. The audacity, intensity, and extravagance of this life are reflected in her autobiography (American Library Association, 1987). Further Information on Isadora Duncan
http://www.isadoraduncan.org/
http://www.sfmuseum.org/bio/isadora.html
www.isadoraduncaninternationalinstitute.org
www.pitt.edu/~gillis/dance/isadora.html Book Reviews of My Life
http://www.anndaly.com/articles/duncan.html Blackberry Winter (1972) is Margaret Mead’s autobiography which focuses on her personal life: as a granddaughter, daughter, student, wife, mother, and finally, grandmother. She journeys out to exotic places such as Samoa and Bali, but she domesticates that experience by analyzing it in a familial framework. Significantly, Mead names the opening chapter of Part I of Blackberry Winter "Home and Travel." These are not polar opposites for Mead, but integrated experiences: "For me, moving and staying at home, traveling and arriving, are all of a piece." Though Mead’s finding as an anthropologist have been challenged of late, her autobiography will remain cherished. Her memories of childhood, her experiences studying with Franz Boas, her discussion of how and why she married three times, and her reflections on motherhood–all make compelling reading (American Library Association, 1987). Further Information on Margaret Mead
http://www.wic.org/bio/mmead.htm
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mmead.htm
http://www.interculturalstudies.org/Mead/index.html
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/mead/ Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1962) was initially written to guide Franklin’s son toward self-improvement. This account of Franklin's unique and eventful life has become a classic in world literature, one to inspire and delight readers everywhere. Information on Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography
www.sparknotes.com/lit/franklinautobio/section1.html
www.english.udel.edu/lemay/franklin/ www.ushistory.org/franklin
A Mormon Mother: An Autobiography (1991) is an autobiography of Annie Clark Tanner, a woman struggling to survive physically and emotionally in a polygamous marriage. Entering into polygamy in 1883 as the second wife of a talented and educated man, she learns to raise her children as well as allow herself to grow into a better person, while remaining loyal to her husband and her religion. Writing in her twilight years, without bitterness, she tells her life as it was, and what it took to persevere. Further Information on Annie Clark Tanner
http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/people/biography.html
Desert Exile (1982) "Yoshiko Uchida has given us a chronicle of a very special kind of courage, the courage to preserve normalcy and humanity in the face of irrationality and inhumanity. Her family’s story, told in loving detail, brings alive the internment experience and is an important book for all Americans. It is not a history of the decisions that were made during this period, but rather it is the story of the human lives touched and molded by those decisions. As such it is infinitely more important, and infinitely more precious" (United States Senator Daniel K. Inouye). Information on Yoshiko Uchida
www.phschool.com/atschool/literature/author_biographies/uchida_y.html Information related to Desert Exile
www.children-of-the-camps.org/
http://eduscapes.com/ladders/themes/japanese.htm I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings (1969) chronicles the life of writer Maya Angelou up to the age of 16. Regarded as a modern Renaissance woman—writer, poet, singer, actress, dancer, playwright, social activist and lecturer--Angelou began life in segregated rural Arkansas. Angelou doesn’t flinch from the brutality of her troubled childhood—she was raped at age 8 by her mother’s boyfriend--but she finds strength in her inner voice to survive and triumph. Further Information on Maya Angelou
http://www.mayaangelou.com/
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/angelou.htm
http://www.wic.org/bio/mangelou.htm
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/angeloubib.htm Book Review and Discussion Guide for I know Why a Caged Bird Sings
http://www.bookclubs.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780553279375&view=rg
http://rmmla.wsu.edu/ereview/54.1/reviews/rummell.asp Black Elk Speaks (1932) is venerated by many who have become alarmed at the declining spiritual and material quality of life in the age of computers and Star Wars. While the electronic media purvey fragmented images of tragic schisms, Black Elk offers an eloquent and profound vision of the unity of all creation. Information on John Neihardt
www.nebraskahistory.org/sites/neihardt/
www.neihardt.com/jgn/jgnbio.html Links related to Black Elk Speaks
www.si.edu/resource/faq/nmai/naspirit.htm
www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/blackelk.html
http://hometown.aol.com/_ht_a/kels3984/Frame6.html Letters of a Woman Homesteader is the autobiography of Elinore Pruitt Stewart, who homesteaded in Wyoming in the early 1900s. Stewart’s descriptions of nature and friends and work and food are sensory and ebullient, her prose might best be termed reticent when she is discussing marriage and childbirth. This reticence is common in frontier journal of women. The weaving together of Stewart’s letters of ebullience and reticence, joy and sorrow, optimism and perseverance, makes modern life seem bland indeed (American Library Association, 1987). Information on Elinore Pruitt Steward
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wyoming/ar-stewart.htm
http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/stewart.htm
Last updated: January 22, 2008 - 10:07am by eric.hildreth
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