Maya Angelou

American performing artist and prolific writer, a poet and autobiographer, author of over 12 best-selling books, and much-loved American sage.

Her work conveys an indomitable spirit that had its roots in hardship, violence, and emotional turmoil. Her parents’ marriage ended when she was three, and she and her older brother were sent to her paternal grandparents’ home in the segregated town of Stamps, Arkansas. They lived in the back of their grandparents’ general store where the children were raised with discipline and care. When Maya was nearly eight, they returned to Saint Louis to visit their mom for the first time since they had left. There, on an autumn day in 1935, Maya was raped by her mother's boyfriend. Afraid that he would kill her brother as he had threatened, she could not initially talk about what had happened. But the little girl was so wounded and ill that her mom took her to the hospital where the truth ultimately came out. When the man was murdered by her uncles for his crime, the young girl felt responsible. Once more the children were sent to their grandparents’ home where Maya withdrew silently into a private, dark, and isolated world where she stayed, completely mute, for five years. The only light that shone in this space came in the guise of a kind neighbor who encouraged her to read and ultimately to end her five-year silence. So began her passionate lifelong affair with words and books.

At 13, she and Bailey went to live with their mom who married a man called Daddy Clidell. He turned out to be the first father Maya had ever known, and the family moved to San Francisco. At 16, she quite deliberately dispensed with her virginity, inviting the participation of a good-looking local boy without thinking through the possible consequences. She found herself pregnant. Her folks were supportive, and in the summer of 1944 she gave birth to a son, Guy.