Letter to My Daughter, Maya Angelou
Letter to My Daughter, Maya Angelou
23 Rating(s)
List: $9.00 | Sale: $6.30
Club: $4.50

Letter to My Daughter

Author: Maya Angelou

Narrator: Maya Angelou

Unabridged: 2 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/23/2008


Synopsis

For a world of devoted fans, a much-awaited new volume of absorbing stories and inspirational wisdom from one of our best-loved writers.

Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou’s path to living well and living a life with meaning. Told in her own inimitable style, this book transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight.

Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses of the tumultuous life that led Angelou to an exalted place in American letters and taught her lessons in compassion and fortitude: how she was brought up by her indomitable grandmother in segregated Arkansas, taken in at thirteen by her more worldly and less religious mother, and grew to be an awkward, six-foot-tall teenager whose first experience of loveless sex paradoxically left her with her greatest gift, a son.

Whether she is recalling such lost friends as Coretta Scott King and Ossie Davis, extolling honesty, decrying vulgarity, explaining why becoming a Christian is a “lifelong endeavor,” or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice–Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women she considers her extended family.

Like the rest of her remarkable work, Letter to My Daughter entertains and teaches; it is a book to cherish, savor, and share.

“I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish speaking, Native Americans and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you.”

–from Letter to My Daughter

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission  to reprint previously published material:

Mari Evans:  Excerpt from “I Am A Black Woman” from I Am A Black Woman by Mari Evans (New York:  William Morrow, 1970).  Reprinted by permission of Mari Evans.

Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. and Harold Ober Associates:  “I, Too” and “Dream Variations” from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Russell, Associate Editor, copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes.  Rights in the United Kingdom are controlled by Harold Ober Associates.  Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates.

Melvin B. Tolson, Jr. c/o The Permissions Company:  Excerpt from “Dark Symphony” from Rendezvous With America (New York:  Dodd, Mead, 1944).  Originally published in Atlantic Monthly (September, 1941), copyright © 1941, 1944 by Melvin B. Tolson and copyright renewed 1968, 1972 by Ruth S. Tolson.  Reprinted by permission of Melvin B. Tolson, r. c/o The Permissions Company, www.permissionscompany.com.

About The Author

Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Heart of a Woman, she wrote numerous volumes of poetry, among them Phenomenal Woman, And Still I Rise, On the Pulse of Morning, and Mother. Maya Angelou died in 2014.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tamara on October 27, 2008

Reading Maya Angelou is like getting a big hug on a bad day. She has the most comforting voice, and may be the wisest person I can think of. I want to be like her when I grow up. Favorite Quotes: Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have......more

Goodreads review by Candi on March 29, 2024

"I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish-speaking, Native American and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offerin......more

Goodreads review by sarah on February 29, 2020

2020 non fiction book 2 out 12 Letter To My Daughter is a short collection of essays by Maya Angelou. Dedicated to all her ‘daughters’ around the world, it combines personal anecdotes, motivational passages and general musings about the world. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author herse......more

Goodreads review by محمد on January 20, 2025

"يستمد جميع الفنانين العظماء من نفس المصدر: القلب البشري، الذي يُخبرنا جميعاً أننا مُتشابهون أكثر من الأشياء التي تُفرقنا." بكلمات دافئة وجذابة ورقيقة، تكتب "مايا أنجلو" في هذا الكتاب "رسالة إلى ابنتي" شعراً ورسائل وشذرات وحكايات من حياتها؛ التي من الجلي أنها لم تكن بحياة عادية أبداً، فقد مرت بالعديد......more

Goodreads review by Deacon Tom on February 07, 2021

Another Magnificent Maya Once again I am blessed to read another book by this wonderful American hero. She gathers her important thoughts and concepts into a series of essays to a daughter she never had—amazing concept. As usual her writing flows very nicely and welcomes the reader into the story. Fr......more


Quotes

“It’s a book to give to one’s daughter, mother, son or father, but definitely one to be read and savored.”—Baltimore Sun

“Sound advice, vivid memory and strong opinion . . . What is clear is that [Maya] Angelou is, all these years later, still a charmer, still speaking her mind.”—Washington Post Book World

“A slim volume packed with nourishing nuggets of wisdom . . . Overarching each brief chapter is the vital energy of a woman taking life’s measure with every step.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Written in Angelou’s beautiful, poetic style, the essays feel like warm advice from a beloved aunt or grandmother, whose wisdom you know was earned.”—Fredericksburg Free Lance—Star

“Spellbinding . . . Angelou delivers with her signature passion and fire. . . . Each [essay] delivers a powerful message.”—Rocky Mountain News


Awards

  • NAACP Literary Non-Fiction Award