"JOY! MAYA ANGELOU!": SINGIN' AND SWINGIN' AND GETTING' MERRY LIKE CHRISTMAS, WONDERFULLY INSCRIBED IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION BY MAYA ANGELOU

ANGELOU, Maya. Singin' and swingin' and gettin' merry like Christmas. New York: Random House, (1976). Octavo, original half red cloth, original dust jacket. $450.

First edition of the third volume in Angelou's powerful memoir that began with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, scarce second printing issued same year as the first, inscribed in the year of publication by her, "Y— W— Joy! Maya Angelou Dec 8 '76."

Singin' and Swingin', the third volume in Angelou's six-volume autobiography, is "honest, funny and heartwarming" (Washington Star). Following I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) and Gather Together in My Name (1974), Angelou here offers a "rare kind of literary model, the working mother… and imaginatively renders the black experience" (Lupton, Maya Angelou, 109-112). She "may be one of the best hunters of the heart, one of the best to explore the insides of folks, black or white, and find what moves them, what makes them real and tangible to themselves and others" (Christian Science Monitor). First edition, second printing: number line endings with "3" and "9."

A fine inscribed copy.