"THE BOOK IS A GEM": FIRST EDITION OF GATHER TOGETHER IN MY NAME, BOLDLY INSCRIBED BY MAYA ANGELOU

ANGELOU, Maya. Gather Together in My Name. New York: Random House, (1974). Octavo, original orange cloth, original dust jacket. $1600.

First edition of the eloquent second book in Angelou's autobiographical series begun with I Know Why the Caged Bird Singes, a lovely copy inscribed by her, "Joy! Maya Angelou 11/10/2000."

With this important second book in her autobiographical series, "Angelou's original goal—to tell the truth about the lives of Black women"—broadened and evolved. To critic Selwyn Cudjoe, the book took a major new step to the course laid by I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969): "Angelou is still concerned with questions of what it means to be Black and female in America… but her development is reflective of a particular type of Black woman, located at a particular moment of history." Here Angelou's writing "exhibits a new self-consciousness" (New Yorker). Her poignant memoir won swift praise as "engrossing and vital, rich and funny and wise… Angelou writes like a song and like the truth" (New York Times). "The book is a gem" (Chicago Tribune). First edition, first printing: with "First Edition" on copyright page.

Dust jacket price-clipped. Fine condition.