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February 27, 2018

Classic Quotes from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888) is best known as the author of Little Women and its sequels, including Jo’s Boys and Little Men, though the scope of her work goes far beyond these beloved books. She is also known for promoting women’s rights and campaigning for women’s suffrage. Here are quotes from Little Women that remind us why we keep returning to the classic novel, time and again:



“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”



“I’ve got the key to my castle in the air, but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen.”



“Love is a great beautifier.”



“My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning, and may be many; but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthly one. The more you love and trust Him, the nearer you will feel to Him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother.”



Louisa May Alcott


You might also like: Louisa May Alcott’s Civil War Journals



“Watch and pray, dear, never get tired of trying, and never think it is impossible to conquer your fault.”



“…for love casts out fear, and gratitude can conquer pride.”



I want to do something splendid…something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead. I don’t know what, but I’m on the watch for it and mean to astonish you all someday.”



“Be comforted, dear soul! There is always light behind the clouds.”



“I’ve got the key to my castle in the air, but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen”



“I’d rather take coffee than compliments right now.”



“I want to do something splendid… Something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead… I think I shall write books.”



Little Women


See also: How Louisa May Alcott Came To Write Little Women



“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”



“Don’t try and make me grow up before my time … ”



“I find it poor logic to say that because women are good, women should vote. Men do not vote because they are good; they vote because they are male, and women should vote, not because we are angels and men are animals, but because we are human beings and citizens of this country.”



Little Women by Louisa May Alcott


See Little Women by Louisa May Alcott on Amazon



You might also enjoy:



Wisdom From Louisa May Alcott
Illustrations for Little Women
10 Writers Who Were Inspired by Jo March





*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!


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Published on February 27, 2018 04:45

February 26, 2018

12 Classic Feminist Authors to Discover or Rediscover

While this is by no means an exhaustive list of classic feminist authors, it’s easy to argue that these women writers (who are no longer with us) were all visionaries in their unique ways. Fortunately, many more women writing today weave their feminist views into their fiction and nonfiction works. It’s safe to say that they stand on the shoulders of those presented here in order of birth from George Sand through Octavia Butler. Are there any others you would have included in this list? Who are today’s leading feminist authors?



Portrait of George Sand in Top hat


George Sand (Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin; 1804 – 1876), the prolific French author, started her own newspaper right around the time of the French revolution of 1848 to disseminate her progressive and socialist views. Women had no legal rights at the time, and she felt strongly that no society could advance under those circumstances.


George Sand enjoyed dressing in men’s clothing, smoking in public, traveling alone, and having lots of lovers — all things that were frowned upon for women of her time. though she had plenty of critics, she gave them as good as she got, and in the end, had legions of admirers. Though her books aren’t widely read in English translation, it’s worth getting to know her for the fearless way she lived, loved, and wrote.



Louisa May Alcott 1862


Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888) promoted women’s rights and campaigned for women’s suffrage when she wasn’t at her writing desk. She believed in her right to write and to make money from her profession. Her views were espoused by her lead characters, strong young women who wanted more from life than to get married and have babies. “Nothing is impossible to a determined woman,” was a line from one of her novels, but also a view she firmly held.


Though the fictional Jo March did disappoint a bit by marrying conventionally and running a school, her ambition to be a writer inspired a number of real-life women writers. Read more about how Louisa May Alcott’s feminism explains her timelessness.



Kate Chopin


Kate Chopin (1850 – 1904) was an American author who was nearly forgotten upon her death, but is now admired as one of the foremothers of 20th century feminist literature. In her fiction, she focused on women’s struggles to forge an identity of their own, especially within the rigid constraints of Southern culture.


The Awakening, her 1899 novella and best known work, came under attack when it was published and was widely banned from bookstores and libraries. It was later rediscovered and has taken a prominent place in the canon of American feminist literature.



Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1900


Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 – 1935) was an American author of fiction and nonfiction, praised for her feminist works that pushed for equal treatment of and respect for women. Her semi-autobiographical novella (or long short story) The Yellow Wallpaper, tells of a woman who, in a depressive state, is banned from any creative activity. This drives her to near madness.


Gilman’s trilogy of utopian feminist novels starting with Herland, as well as her treatise on Women and Economics were ahead of their time. In 1994 she was welcomed into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and named one of the most influential women of the twentieth century.



Miles Franklin


Miles Franklin (1879 – 1954) was an Australian novelist and feminist activist. My Brilliant Career (1901), her best known work, was also her first novel, telling the story of a teenage girl growing up in Australia eager to break free as her own person. Franklin herself was a teenager when she wrote this insightful and delightfully rebellious book, which sealed her reputation. The lead character, Sybilla, observes: “It came home to me as a great blow that it was only men who could take the world by its ears and conquer their fate, while women, metaphorically speaking, were forced to sit with tied hands and patiently suffer as the waves of fate tossed them hither and thither, battering and bruising without mercy.”


In 1906, she moved to the U.S. to work with the National Women’s Trade Union League of America, and continued to be active in social causes after returning to her native land.



Virginia Woolf


Virginia Woolf (1882 – 1941 ) believed in the right and agency of women to write and be heard. Though not many her novels may be considered feminist per se — they formed more of an interior, experimental body of work —  A Room of One’s Own is a classic feminist manifesto.


She urged women to let their voices be heard as writers, and reminded us that we who writer are both inheritors and originators. “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” might be her most famous quote, but she also reminded us that  “The extraordinary woman depends on the ordinary woman  …”



Pearl S. Buck


Pearl S. Buck (1892 – 1973), was a prolific American author of fiction and nonfiction. Her novels, whether set in China or the U.S., offered subtle examinations of women’s roles. As humanitarian and human rights advocate, she brought attention to issues of gender, politics, and race.


In an era when it was drilled into girls that a woman’s place was in the home, she wrote:  “An intelligent, energetic, educated woman cannot be kept in four walls — even satin-lined, diamond-studded walls — without discovering sooner or later that they are still a prison cell.” Feminist themes are often woven into her novels. A personal favorite is Pavilion of Women, in which Madame Wu compels her husband to take a concubine so that she can live a live of the mind and spirit.



Simone de Beauvoir quote



Simone de Beauvoir (1908 – 1986) was a French author, existential philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. Her most enduring work is The Second Sex, published in 1949. It’s still read and studied to this day as an essential manifesto on women’s oppression and liberation. Filled with ideas deemed radical at the time, the book established her an intellectual force and inspired a generation of women to question the status quo, and better yet, to change it.


This quote from The Second Sex is still sadly pertinent in the time of the #MeToo movement: “No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about his virility.”



Doris Lessing


Doris Lessing (1919 – 2013) married and had children young and felt trapped in her role. It was writing that set her free.The Golden Notebook (1962) was her breakthrough novel, earned much attention among second-wave feminists. She later became something of an icon in the feminist movement, and the book is considered a “feminist bible.” She experimented with other forms of fiction, including science fiction, and for her body of work, won a 2007 Nobel Prize. 


She didn’t mince words, even when speaking of and to women; this quote from The Golden Notebook is a case in point: “Sometimes I dislike women, I dislike us all, because of our capacity for not-thinking when it suits us; we choose not to think when we are reaching our for happiness.” Lessing used her platform to speak out on political issues important to her; she was particularly outspoken against apartheid in South Africa.



Adrienne Rich


Adrienne Rich (1929 – 2012), the American poet, had a long career as a literary leader whose work articulated the ideas of the second wave feminist movement. Her poetry, according to this post by Sarah Wyman, envisions an alternative to a patriarchal system in which men control the avenues of power and the definitions of female existence. 


Further, Wyman notes, “Rich refuses any division between the artistic and political aspects of her poetry as she uses both to explore social relations in a world hostile to female identity and creativity.” There’s lots more insight on Rich’s contributions to feminist literature in Wyman’s analysis of Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich.



Audre Lorde


Audre Lorde (1934 – 1992) was a self-identified “black lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” As society progressed with the anti-war, feminist and civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s, she moved into increasingly political themes with her poetry, speeches, and essays. Lorde used her platform as a writer, teacher, and speaker to spread ideas and experiences about the intersecting oppressions faced by many people.


As Lorde battled breast cancer, she wrote a feminist analysis of her experience with the disease and a mastectomy. For a sampling of her views, see Ten Thought-Provoking Quotes from Sister Outsider.



Octavia E. Butler


Octavia Butler (1947 – 2006) broke barriers as an African-American woman in the white male-dominated genre of science fiction. A self-described feminist, her novels feature strong female leads who are often the ones leading the charge to save humanity from itself. The MacArthur award winner was described by the New York Times as a writer “whose evocative, often troubling novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power, and ultimately, what it meant to be human.”


Even if you’re not generally a sci-fi reader, you’d do well to read Kindred, which is more speculative than sci-fi, and the eerily prescient dystopian duo Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.


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Published on February 26, 2018 08:07

Quotes from Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Daphne du Maurier (1907 – 1989) was a British novelist, playwright, and short story writer. As the author of romantic suspense thrillers, she’s arguably best known for Rebecca (1938), though Jamaica Inn, My Cousin Rachel, and the short story “The Birds” (which inspired the terrifying 1963 film are close contenders. For Rebecca, du Maurier drew upon on her experience with her own husband, who couldn’t let go of his departed wife. Rebecca was an instant best-seller, and the basis of the classic 1940 film of the same title. Here are some standout quotes from Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: 



“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”



“If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.”



“Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.”



“I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say.



“Men are simpler than you imagine my sweet child. But what goes on in the twisted, tortuous minds of women would baffle anyone.”



“We can never go back again, that much is certain. The past is still close to us. The things we have tried to forget and put behind us would stir again, and that sense of fear, of furtive unrest, struggling at length to blind unreasoning panic – now mercifully stilled, thank God – might in some manner unforeseen become a living companion as it had before.”



Rebecca


See also: Daphne du Maurier Writing Habits and Styles



“I wondered why it was that places are so much lovelier when one is alone.”



“I believe there is a theory that men and women emerge finer and stronger after suffering, and that to advance in this or any world we must endure ordeal by fire.



“A dreamer, I walked enchanted, and nothing held me back.”



“Boredom is a pleasing antidote for fear.”



“When the leaves rustle, they sound very much like the stealthy movement of a woman in evening dress, and when they shiver suddenly, and fall, and scatter away along the ground, they might be the patter of a woman’s hurrying footsteps, and the mark in the gravel the imprint of a high-heeled shoe.”



Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier


Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier on Amazon



“You have blotted out the past for me, far more effectively than all the bright lights of Monte Carlo.”



“Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind of course we have on moments of depression; but there are other moments too, when time, unmeasured by the clock, runs on into eternity.”



“It seemed incredible to me now that I had never understood. I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered, and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth. This was what I had done. I had built up false pictures in my mind and sat before them. I had never had the courage to demand the truth.”



“I glanced out of the window, and it was like turning the page of a photograph album. Those roof-tops and that sea were mine no more. They belonged to yesterday, to the past.”



“That was yesterday. Today we pass on, we see it no more, and we are different, changed in some infinitesimal way. We can never be quite the same again.”



“Boredom is a pleasing antidote to fear.”



Memorable first lines from classic novels — Manderley quote from Rebecca


You might also enjoy:

Memorable First Lines from Classic Novels by Women Authors



Explore more:



Daphne du Maurier obituary
Du Maurier’s Rebecca: A Worthy “Eyre” Apparent
Words of Wisdom and Quotes by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca: A Review
The inspiration for Rebecca





*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!


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Published on February 26, 2018 06:30

February 23, 2018

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë: A 19th-Century Introduction

This introduction to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) by Anne Brontë is excerpted from Life and Works of the Sisters Brontë by Mary A. Ward, a 19th-century British novelist and literary critic. 


The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, first published under Anne’s pseudonym Acton Bell, was an immediate success. It was considered shocking for its time, and in hindsight, one of the earliest feminist novels. It tells of the mysterious Helen Graham, and her arrival at Wildfell Hall with her young son and servant. Through a series of letters from another character, we learn of Helen’s troubled past. Shockingly, Charlotte prevented the republication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall after Anne’s death, nearly causing its oblivion in literary history.


The following excerpt is abbreviated from Ward’s 1899 book about the Brontë. These passages don’t so much summarize or analyze the book but put Anne in the context of her family and the times in which she lived. It also discusses the effect that the troubling Brontë brother, Branwell, might have had on the sisters’ work:



Putting Anne in context

Anne Brontë serves a twofold purpose in the study of what the Brontës wrote and were. In the first place, her gentle and delicate presence, her sad, short story, her hard life and early death, enter deeply into the poetry and tragedy that have always been entwined with the memory of the Brontës, as women and as writers; in the second, the books and poems that she wrote serve as matter of comparison by which to test the greatness of her two sisters. She is the measure of their genius — like them, yet not with them.



Bronte sisters

RELATED CONTENT

The Brontë Sisters’ Path to Publication

Without the Veil Between (a novel about Anne Brontë)



A wrong impression of Anne

Many years after Anne’s death her brother-in-law protested against a supposed portrait of her, as giving a totally wrong impression of the ‘dear, gentle Anne Brontë.” “Dear” and “gentle” indeed she seems to have been through life, the youngest and prettiest of the sisters, with a delicate complexion, a slender neck, and small, pleasant features. 


Notwithstanding, she possessed in full the Brontë seriousness, the Brontë strength of will.  When her father asked her at four years old what a little child like her wanted most, the tiny creature replied — if it were not a Brontë it would be incredible!— “Age and experience.”



Branwell’s mark on the sisters’ work

Much of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and all of Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall show Branwell’s mark, and there are many passages in Charlotte’s books also where those who know the history of the parsonage can hear the voice of those sharp moral repulsions, those dismal moral questionings, to which Branwell’s misconduct and ruin gave rise. 


Their brother’s fate was an element in the genius of Emily and Charlotte which they were strong enough to assimilate, which may have done them some harm, and weakened in them certain delicate or sane perceptions, but was ultimately, by the strange alchemy of talent, far more profitable than hurtful, inasmuch as it troubled the waters of the soul, and brought them near to the more desperate realities of our “frail, fall’n humankind.”


But Anne was not strong enough, her gift was not vigorous enough, to enable her thus to transmute experience and grief. The probability is that when she left Thorpe Green in 1845 she was already suffering from that religious melancholy of which Charlotte discovered such piteous evidence among her papers after death. It did not much affect the writing of Agnes Grey, which was completed in 1846, and reflected the minor pains and discomforts of her teaching experience, but it combined with the spectacle of Branwell’s increasing moral and physical decay to produce that bitter mandate of conscience under which she wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.



inside cover of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall


See also: Quotes from Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall



How gentle Anne could speak unpalatable truths

“Hers was naturally a sensitive, reserved, and dejected nature. She hated her work, but would pursue it.  It was written as a warning,” — so said Charlotte when, in the pathetic Preface of 1850, she was endeavoring to explain to the public how a creature so gentle and so good as Acton Bell should have written such a book as The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.


And in the second edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which appeared in 1848, Anne Brontë herself justified her novel in a Preface. The little Preface is a curious document. It has the same determined didactic tone which pervades the book itself, the same narrowness of view, and inflation of expression, an inflation which is really due not to any personal egotism in the writer, but rather to that very gentleness and inexperience which must yet nerve itself under the stimulus of religion to its disagreeable and repulsive task. 


… But at the same time she cannot promise to limit her ambition to the giving of innocent pleasure, or to the production of a perfect work of art: “Time and talent so spent I should consider wasted and misapplied.” God has given her unpalatable truths to speak, and she must speak them.


The measure of misconstruction and abuse, therefore, which her book brought upon her she bore, says her sister, “as it was her custom to bear whatever was unpleasant, with mild, steady patience. She was a very sincere and practical Christian, but the tinge of religious melancholy communicated a sad shade to her brief, blameless life.”



The tenant of Wildfell Hall


The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on Amazon



Nearly as successful as Charlotte’s Jane Eyre

In spite of misconstruction and abuse, however, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall seems to have attained more immediate success than anything else written by the sisters before 1848, except Jane Eyre. It went into a second edition within a very short time of its publication, and Messrs. Newby informed the American publishers with whom they were negotiating that it was the work of the same hand which had produced Jane Eyre, and superior to either Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights


It was, indeed, the sharp practice connected with this astonishing judgment which led to the sisters’ hurried journey to London in 1848 — the famous journey when the two little ladies in black revealed themselves to Mr. Smith, and proved to him that they were not one Currer Bell, but two Miss Brontës. It was Anne’s sole journey to London—her only contact with a world that was not Haworth, except that supplied by her school-life at Roehead and her two teaching engagements.


And there was and is a considerable narrative ability, a sheer moral energy in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which would not be enough, indeed, to keep it alive if it were not the work of a Brontë, but still betray its kinship and source. The scenes of Huntingdon’s wickedness are less interesting but less improbable than the country-house scenes of Jane Eyre; the story of his death has many true and touching passages; the last love-scene is well, even in parts admirably, written. 



The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Mini-Series


Watch The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (mini-series) on Amazon



The mark of Branwell

But the book’s truth, so far as it is true, is scarcely the truth of imagination; it is rather the truth of a tract or a report. There can be little doubt that many of the pages are close transcripts from Branwell’s conduct and language — so far as Anne’s slighter personality enabled her to render her brother’s temperament, which was more akin to Emily’s than to her own. 


The same material might have been used by Emily or Charlotte; Emily, as we know, did make use of it in Wuthering Heights; but only after it had passed through that ineffable transformation, that mysterious, incommunicable heightening which makes and gives rank in literature. 


… It is not as the writer of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but as the sister of Charlotte and Emily Brontë, that Anne Brontë escapes oblivion — as the frail “little one,” upon whom the other two lavished a tender and protecting care, who was a witness of Emily’s death, and herself, within a few minutes of her own farewell to life, bade Charlotte ‘take courage.’



More about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë



Wikipedia
Reader discussion on Goodreads
An Entire Mistake: The Suppression of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Review on Smart Bitches Trashy Books






*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!


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Published on February 23, 2018 18:22

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë: 19th-Century Introduction

This introduction to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) by Anne Brontë is excerpted from Life and Works of the Sisters Brontë by Mary A. Ward, a 19th-century British novelist and literary critic. 


The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, first published under Anne’s pseudonym Acton Bell, was an immediate success. It was considered shocking for its time, and in hindsight, one of the earliest feminist novels. It tells of the mysterious Helen Graham, and her arrival at Wildfell Hall with her young son and servant. Through a series of letters from another character, we learn of Helen’s troubled past. Shockingly, Charlotte prevented the republication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall after Anne’s death, nearly causing its oblivion in literary history.


The following excerpt is abbreviated from Ward’s 1899 book about the Brontë. These passages don’t so much summarize or analyze the book but put Anne in the context of her family and the times in which she lived. It also discusses the effect that the troubling Brontë brother, Branwell, might have had on the sisters’ work:



Putting Anne in context

Anne Brontë serves a twofold purpose in the study of what the Brontës wrote and were. In the first place, her gentle and delicate presence, her sad, short story, her hard life and early death, enter deeply into the poetry and tragedy that have always been entwined with the memory of the Brontës, as women and as writers; in the second, the books and poems that she wrote serve as matter of comparison by which to test the greatness of her two sisters. She is the measure of their genius — like them, yet not with them.



Bronte sisters

You might also like: 

The Brontë Sisters’ Path to Publication



A wrong impression of Anne

Many years after Anne’s death her brother-in-law protested against a supposed portrait of her, as giving a totally wrong impression of the ‘dear, gentle Anne Brontë.” “Dear” and “gentle” indeed she seems to have been through life, the youngest and prettiest of the sisters, with a delicate complexion, a slender neck, and small, pleasant features. 


Notwithstanding, she possessed in full the Brontë seriousness, the Brontë strength of will.  When her father asked her at four years old what a little child like her wanted most, the tiny creature replied — if it were not a Brontë it would be incredible!— “Age and experience.”



Branwell’s mark on the sisters’ work

Much of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and all of Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall show Branwell’s mark, and there are many passages in Charlotte’s books also where those who know the history of the parsonage can hear the voice of those sharp moral repulsions, those dismal moral questionings, to which Branwell’s misconduct and ruin gave rise. 


Their brother’s fate was an element in the genius of Emily and Charlotte which they were strong enough to assimilate, which may have done them some harm, and weakened in them certain delicate or sane perceptions, but was ultimately, by the strange alchemy of talent, far more profitable than hurtful, inasmuch as it troubled the waters of the soul, and brought them near to the more desperate realities of our “frail, fall’n humankind.”


But Anne was not strong enough, her gift was not vigorous enough, to enable her thus to transmute experience and grief. The probability is that when she left Thorpe Green in 1845 she was already suffering from that religious melancholy of which Charlotte discovered such piteous evidence among her papers after death. It did not much affect the writing of Agnes Grey, which was completed in 1846, and reflected the minor pains and discomforts of her teaching experience, but it combined with the spectacle of Branwell’s increasing moral and physical decay to produce that bitter mandate of conscience under which she wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.



 


inside cover of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall



How gentle Anne could speak unpalatable truths

“Hers was naturally a sensitive, reserved, and dejected nature. She hated her work, but would pursue it.  It was written as a warning,” — so said Charlotte when, in the pathetic Preface of 1850, she was endeavoring to explain to the public how a creature so gentle and so good as Acton Bell should have written such a book as The Tenant of Wildfell Hall


And in the second edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which appeared in 1848, Anne Brontë herself justified her novel in a Preface. The little Preface is a curious document. It has the same determined didactic tone which pervades the book itself, the same narrowness of view, and inflation of expression, an inflation which is really due not to any personal egotism in the writer, but rather to that very gentleness and inexperience which must yet nerve itself under the stimulus of religion to its disagreeable and repulsive task. 


… But at the same time she cannot promise to limit her ambition to the giving of innocent pleasure, or to the production of a perfect work of art: “Time and talent so spent I should consider wasted and misapplied.” God has given her unpalatable truths to speak, and she must speak them.


The measure of misconstruction and abuse, therefore, which her book brought upon her she bore, says her sister, “as it was her custom to bear whatever was unpleasant, with mild, steady patience. She was a very sincere and practical Christian, but the tinge of religious melancholy communicated a sad shade to her brief, blameless life.”



The tenant of Wildfell Hall


The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on Amazon



Nearly as successful as Charlotte’s Jane Eyre

In spite of misconstruction and abuse, however, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall seems to have attained more immediate success than anything else written by the sisters before 1848, except Jane Eyre. It went into a second edition within a very short time of its publication, and Messrs. Newby informed the American publishers with whom they were negotiating that it was the work of the same hand which had produced Jane Eyre, and superior to either Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights


It was, indeed, the sharp practice connected with this astonishing judgment which led to the sisters’ hurried journey to London in 1848 — the famous journey when the two little ladies in black revealed themselves to Mr. Smith, and proved to him that they were not one Currer Bell, but two Miss Brontës. It was Anne’s sole journey to London—her only contact with a world that was not Haworth, except that supplied by her school-life at Roehead and her two teaching engagements.


And there was and is a considerable narrative ability, a sheer moral energy in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which would not be enough, indeed, to keep it alive if it were not the work of a Brontë, but still betray its kinship and source. The scenes of Huntingdon’s wickedness are less interesting but less improbable than the country-house scenes of Jane Eyre; the story of his death has many true and touching passages; the last love-scene is well, even in parts admirably, written. 



The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Mini-Series


Watch The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (mini-series) on Amazon



The mark of Branwell

But the book’s truth, so far as it is true, is scarcely the truth of imagination; it is rather the truth of a tract or a report. There can be little doubt that many of the pages are close transcripts from Branwell’s conduct and language — so far as Anne’s slighter personality enabled her to render her brother’s temperament, which was more akin to Emily’s than to her own. 


The same material might have been used by Emily or Charlotte; Emily, as we know, did make use of it in Wuthering Heights; but only after it had passed through that ineffable transformation, that mysterious, incommunicable heightening which makes and gives rank in literature. 


… It is not as the writer of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but as the sister of Charlotte and Emily Brontë, that Anne Brontë escapes oblivion — as the frail “little one,” upon whom the other two lavished a tender and protecting care, who was a witness of Emily’s death, and herself, within a few minutes of her own farewell to life, bade Charlotte ‘take courage.’



More about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë



Wikipedia
Reader discussion on Goodreads
An Entire Mistake: The Suppression of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Review on Smart Bitches Trashy Books






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Published on February 23, 2018 18:22

February 22, 2018

Maya Angelou Quotes To Live By

Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014) was an African-American writer, poet, civil rights activist, memoirist, and much more. She’s best known for I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1969), which was among a seven-part autobiographical series. She led a bold, inspiring, accomplished life, and was a true trailblazing woman to be remembered and honored. Here is a compilation of Maya Angelou quotes that we would all do well to live by: 



“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”



“Determine to live life with flair and laughter.”



“We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.”



“If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.”



“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”



“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”



“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”



Maya Angelou quotes



“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”



“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”



“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”



“A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.”



“If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.”



“‎The desire to reach the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise and most possible.”





Maya Angelou


You might also like: 10 Fascinating Facts About Maya Angelou



“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”



“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away.”



“I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.”



“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”



“Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.”



“I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.”



“You did the best that you knew how. Now that you know better, you’ll do better.”









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Published on February 22, 2018 08:21

10 Fascinating Facts About Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014) was an American author, actress, screenwriter, dancer, poet and civil rights activist. Best known for her 1969 memoir, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, the inspiring, trail-blazing African-American woman led a vibrant life, full of accomplishments. While she may be remembered for numerous speeches, plays, memoirs, and performances, here are ten fascinating facts about Maya Angelou that give even more insight into her multifaceted life:



Childhood years spent mute

Angelou has publicly spoken about the trauma that resulted in her going mute for five years, but there is so much to be discussed about these crucial years. After being raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of seven, the abuser was only jailed for one day. After telling her family about the horrific incident, a day after his release he was murdered. Angelou believed this to be her fault for opening her mouth and said “I thought my voice killed him; I killed that man because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again because my voice would kill anyone…” Angelou also credits her brother to be one of the people to bring her out of this time of muteness.



Inspiring grandmother

When Angelou was 3 years old, she and her older brother, Bailey Jr., were sent to Stamps, Arkansas to live with her paternal grandmother. Her grandmother, Annie Henderson (whom Angelou referred to as “momma”) was a child to a former slave, and the only black person in Stamps to own a general store in town.


Her grandmother is also with whom Angelou credits her ability to read; Annie Henderson would bring back books from the local all-white schools, and taught Angelou and her brother how to read.



Maya Angelou



First black female streetcar conductor

There doesn’t seem to be a hat she hasn’t worn. When Angelou was in high school, she sought out a job as a streetcar conductor. After initially being denied several times based on the color of her skin, her perseverance won in the end. She became the first black streetcar conductor, female no less. “I loved the uniforms,” Angelou said.



Female pimp and prostitute

Angelou was always forthcoming and open about sexuality and her personal history with sex work. She spoke about it in interviews (but publications often omitted it later) and wrote about it in her second autobiography, Gather Together In My Name.  


Although short-lived, she made a bundle. After working as a dancer at the Hi Hat Club in San Diego, going by the working name Ms. Calypso, she turned to pimping and soon quit after three months– but only after she bought her first car, a 1939 pale-green Chrysler convertible.



Her friend Martin Luther King, Jr. died on her birthday

Angelou had a multitude of prominent friendships over the course of her life, including Malcolm X and Oprah. She had a close friendship with Martin Luther King Jr. When Angelou returned to the United States after having spent time living abroad, she was about to help organize a march for Martin Luther King Jr., but on her 40th birthday, April 4th, 1968, he was assassinated.  



Grammy winner

Angelou won three Grammys in her lifetime: the first one was for a poem she wrote and recited at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. She was the first black poet to present at a presidential inauguration. It was called “On The Pulse of Morning” and won the Best Spoken Word award. She continued on to win two more, in 1996 for Best Spoken Word Album, and again in 2003.



Received a letter from Tupac’s mother

Angelou agreed to be a part of John Singleton’s iconic 1993 film “Poetic Justice” featuring rapper Tupac Shakur and singer Janet Jackson. The rapper was in the middle of a raging cursing spree, and although having no idea who he was, Angelou promptly pulled him aside and had a heart-to-heart with the artist. It’s been said that she moved him to tears with her empowering story about black individuals in America, and of his importance to the culture.


Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, later wrote a letter to Angelou expressing her deepest gratitude towards Angelou for giving advice to her son and teaching him such a valuable lesson.



Maya Angelou


You might also enjoy: Maya Angelou Quotes To Live By



Writer of Hallmark greeting cards

Despite the disapproval of her Random House editor, Angelou wrote words for a line of cards, bookends, and pillows for Hallmark. She said “If I’m America’s poet, or one of them, then I want to be in people’s hands… people who would never buy a book.”



Cookbook author

If you couldn’t tell by now, Angelou always kept busy. She authored the cookbooks Great Food, All Day Long and Hallelujah! The Welcome Table. She believed that people wouldn’t overeat if they ate what they wanted, when they felt like it … such as “fried rice for breakfast,” she said.



Maya Angelou was also…

A guest star on Sesame Street, watched Law & Order, loved Uggs, and listened to country music.
Was there anything she didn’t do?







*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!


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Published on February 22, 2018 08:17

February 21, 2018

“Flowering Judas” by Katherine Anne Porter: an analysis

Taking a cue from Judas who revealed Christ’s identity to his persecutors with a kiss, “Flowering Judas” by Katherine Anne Porter, a short story published in 1930, revolves around themes of betrayal. Laura, an adventurous young woman from the southwest U.S. has an identity crisis, questioning her own values and her involvement in the Mexican revolution of 1910 – 1920. At age twenty-two, she resembles Katherine Anne Porter herself, who traveled often to Mexico in her thirties, after the war ended. 


Characteristic of Porter’s heroines, Laura is one for whom personal choices have serious political implications. Despite her distaste for the powerful leader Braggioni, she endures his oppressive, off-key serenades. Her inauthentic denial of self and her complicity in Eugenio’s death lead her to rethink her own status as savior or betrayer. 



Laura’s self-betrayal

“It may be true,” she thinks, “I am as corrupt … as Braggioni.” Her way of living, she decides, betrays her sense of what life should be. Risking her safety for a dream of social justice, she notes flaws in an international enterprise that operates by means of deception and exploitation. The dreamy, highly abstracted conclusion of the story suggests no pat interpretation, but complicates Laura’s decision to involve herself in a faraway conflict and her denial of human connection: “She is not at home in the world.”


The gringa Laura is an unlikely player in the Mexican revolution. Her little betrayals of the Socialist cause seem fairly insignificant. She insists on handmade lace rather than products of the worshipped machine. A Roman Catholic convent graduate, like the author, she pauses now and then in a church to indulge her religious tendencies, also forbidden by the revolutionaries. 


Laura’s real transgressions concern her betrayal of self, her rejection of “knowledge and kinship,” and the fact that she has lost a sense of wonder as she looks about her “without amazement.” As her illusions of heroic social transformation crumble, she understands: “it is monstrous to confuse love with revolution.” 


Teaching children English in Xochimilco by day, smuggling secret messages and sleeping pills to prisoners by night, she appears brave and daring, yet exhibits fear in many forms.  Rather than thrilling to the sustaining pulse of life about her, “she is gradually perfecting herself in the stoicism she strives to cultivate against that disaster she fears, though she cannot name it.”


The anxiety Laura lives by reveals the lack of faith she feels in her project and manifests itself most clearly in the nightmarish scene at the end of the story. The clear betrayal, when she fails to save or even connect with the martyred Eugenio, manifests her inability to live fully in the world, in the service of a genuine, human cause, including that of her own fulfillment.



katherine ann porter


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Laura’s hardening, Braggioni’s heartlessness

Laura has hardened herself in a way different from her employer Braggioni’s heartlessness. Sexually repressed in her long, tight sleeves and high collar, she is unmoved by suitors, and in Braggioni’s eyes, “notorious[ly]” virginal. Does she deny her womanhood or rather take measures necessary for one dealing in a “man’s world” of political intrigue? The appealing appearance of her body, “great round breasts” and “invaluably beautiful legs” under long skirts serve as a decoy for danger in a patriarchal system. True peril lies in her would-be suitors. 


Nevertheless, her body itself strives to protect her, as Porter writes in the style of literary naturalism: “the very cells of her flesh reject knowledge and kinship in one monotonous word. No. No. No.”  Her adaptation to and survival in these circumstances depends on such rejection of human connection, and her instincts direct her actions: “No repeats this firm unchanging voice of her blood.”


Braggioni, a powerful, flawed figurehead, leads the Socialist insurrection under Pascual Ortiz Rubio in his region of Mexico City. A complicated character, he seems a buffoon at times, a manipulator, an apocalyptic visionary, and an indiscriminate user of women. Empathetic yet deeply critical, Laura understands his sensitivity, the way his cruelty rests on “the vast cureless wound of his self-esteem.” His “gluttonous bulk” is a symbol of her disillusion, for she had mythologized a revolutionist as “lean, animated by heroic faith, a vessel of abstract virtues.”



Images of total destruction

Near the end of the story, Braggioni glorifies images of total destruction: “Some day this world, now seemingly composed and eternal, to the edges of every sea shall be merely a tangle of gaping trenches, of crashing walls and broken bodies. Everything must be torn from its accustomed place where it has rotted for centuries …” What has young Laura gotten herself into?


If Braggioni fails to fit the bill of a true revolutionist, so does Laura. The author plays up the surprising similarities between the young seeker and the coarse commander by drawing parallels between the two. Laura’s twenty identical hand-made lace collars, echoed pathetically in the dropped drawers of the priest figurine, also parallel Braggioni’s yellow silk handkerchief scented with Jockey Club cologne from New York. 


Such affectations and indulgences seem out of place in a cause that proclaims freedom for the peasants and for political prisoners in tortuous conditions. Whereas Laura’s “knees cling together under sound blue serge,” Braggioni “balanc[es] his paunch between his spread knees.”  Later, he lays his laden ammunition belt across Laura’s knees to solidify his dominance and their connection.  The author’s subtle artistry and figurative patterning enables Laura’s self-knowledge as she declares herself “corrupt, callous… and incomplete” as Braggioni.



Katherine Anne Porter stamp


Katherine Anne Porter page on Amazon



The shattering of illusions

The illusions Laura had about joining a great revolutionary movement to better society prove false. Braggioni, the supposed great leader, is a gluttonous sham. His definition of freedom is a travesty of his wife’s trust. He confides to Laura, “One woman is really as good as another for me, in the dark. I prefer them all.”Laura strokes his ego because he provides her entrée into the inner workings of the movement.


“She cannot help feeling that she has been betrayed irreparably by the disunion between her way of living and her feeling of what life should be, and at times she is almost contented to rest in this sense of grievance as a private store of consolation.” Her temptation to trade feelings of self-pity for action proves dangerous, especially because many of the activities she does carry out seem hardly worthy of lofty ideals of political improvement. For example, she moves money between the Romanian and Polish agitators, both of whom are being shamelessly used by the Mayan-Italian Braggioni.



A false martyr

After a month’s abandonment, Braggioni returns lovingly to his oft-betrayed wife and she humbly washes his feet in the manner of Christ bathing his disciples. Despite his hard-hearted dismissal of Eugenio, he seems quite moved by the loss after all. So he is at once a brute symbol of violent revolution, and a more ironically rounded, human figure, a false martyr to balance the true sacrifice to despair, Eugenio.   


In the final dream-scene, a skeletal Eugenio calls Laura a murderer, and beckons her to a new country, to death. Laura experiences a deeply sensual capitulation to the great feeling behind her paradoxically daring and timid revolutionary activity. Denied his guiding hand, Laura devours the lush blossoms of the Judas tree he feeds her. Her literal hunger and thirst signal further corruption rather than spiritual communion. 


The physicality of her gesture, reminiscent of both Christian sacrament and Braggioni’s appalling gluttony, turns all into a false ritual, and again links her to her antagonist.  In the presence of an un-resurrected Eugenio, Laura can no longer repress her human need for connection, nor her affective responses of wonder and compassion. Yet she remains confused, fragmented, and alienated, as she wakes trembling with a cry.



A beautifully crafted tale

Various critics report that this beautifully crafted tale that secured Porter’s literary reputation was written in a single evening of December, 1929. Porter typically started her stories by writing the final line first and this example pulls inexorably towards its surrealist end. The story’s conclusion provides an overflow of repressed emotion for both Braggioni and Laura. 


— Contributed by Sarah Wyman, Associate Professor of English, SUNY-New Paltz, ©2018



More about “Flowering Judas” by Katherine Anne Porter



This Day in History: “Flowering Judas” is published
Untoward Stories: “Flowering Judas”
Reader discussion of Flowering Judas and Other Stories on Goodreads






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Published on February 21, 2018 08:32

February 20, 2018

Maya Angelou

Marguerite Annie Johnson Angelou (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014), widely known as Maya Angelou, was an American author, actress, screenwriter, dancer, poet, and civil rights activist. This celebrated, inspiring, and prolific woman is best known for a multitude of accomplishments. Her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, made literary history for being the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman.


During her lifetime, she published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry. Her autobiography series chronicled her childhood, youth, and early adult experiences. Maya Angelou is also credited with writing a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than thirty honorary doctoral degrees.



Traumatic Early Years

Maya and her older brother, Bailey Jr., were born to Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse. Their father, Bailey Johnson, worked as a doorman and navy dietitian. When Maya (so nicknamed by her brother) was three, her parents divorced and sent her and her brother to live with her grandparents in Stamps, Arkansas.


Four years later, Maya and her brother were shuttled back to live with her mother. At age eight, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend, a man named Freeman. Jailed for only a day, Freeman was murdered four days after his release. Maya retreated into solitude out of guilt, believing she was the reason he was murdered, and became mute for five years. Later she wrote, “I thought my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone …”


It has been said that during these years of silence is when Maya developed her extraordinary memory, cultivated her passion and love for books and writing, and developed her outstanding ability to observe and listen to the world around her.


Shortly after Freeman’s murder, Maya and her brother returned once again to their grandparents home in Stamps, Arkansas. She credits her relationships with her brother, Bailey, and a friend of the family, Bertha Flowers, with helping her to start speaking again. Mrs. Flowers introduced Maya to a world of great authors who would influence and inspire her, including Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Frances Harper, and Jessie Fauset.



Maya Angelou



Wearer of Many Hats

At age 14, Maya and her brother moved back in with their mother, who was then living in Oakland, California. Ever the groundbreaker, Maya became the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco. At age 17, a few weeks after graduating from the California Labor School, Maya gave birth to her son Clyde (who later changed his name to Guy).


In 1950, despite the scrutiny of interracial relationships and the disapproval of her mother, Maya was briefly married to Tosh Angelos, a Greek sailor. It was then that she explored artistic and creative performance. In early 1952, she adopted the surname Angelou.


She dived into a career in theatre, performing in Porgy and Bess and several Broadway plays such as Cabaret for Freedom, which she wrote with Godfrey Cambridge. In 1961, Maya performed in an off-Broadway production of The Black’s, with James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett, Jr., and Cicely Tyson.



Maya Angelou



In the early 1960’s, Maya developed a relationship with South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make, with whom she and her son, Guy, moved to Egypt. After they split in 1962, she and Guy moved to Ghana so that he could attend college, but he was severely injured in a car accident. They remained in Ghana until he completed his recovery in 1965.


In Ghana, Maya Angelou worked as an administrator at the University of Ghana, became an editor for The African Review, freelanced for the Ghanaian Times, and wrote and broadcast for Radio Ghana. She even worked and performed for Ghana’s National Theatre. A true wearer of many, many hats.



I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou


Maya Angelou page on Amazon



Prominent Friendships Met With Obstacles

The company Maya kept included other intelligent, trailblazing individuals that influenced her own brilliance. While in Ghana, she became close with Malcolm X, and after she returned to the United States in 1965, she helped him build the Organization of Afro-American Unity.


Devastated after Malcom X’s assassination, Maya bounced around between a variety of jobs and roles — she acted, wrote plays. In 1986 Martin Luther King Jr. asked her to organize a march. King was assassinated on her 40th birthday on April 4th, 1968.


Slipping further into depression after the loss of another heroic friend, Maya was lifted out of her downward spiral by another close friend, James Baldwin. Not long after, she once again tapped into her creative genius and stepped out of her comfort zone. She wrote, produced, and narrated Blacks, Blues, Black!, a ten-part series of documentaries about the connection between blues music and African heritage.  


Maya’s first autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, was published in 1969. The book’s immediate succeess brought her international recognition.



Maya Angelou



A Tremendous Life of Many “Firsts”

In 1972, Maya wrote Georgia, Georgia, becoming the first black woman to have a screenplay produced. Over the course of the next ten years, she accomplished more than most people achieve in a lifetime. In 1973, she moved to Paris and married Paul du Feu, where she composed movie scores, wrote TV series, articles, poetry, short stories, and autobiographies, produced plays, and gave talks at universities and colleges.


In the late 1970’s, Maya met and befriended Oprah Winfrey, and the two become close friends. 


After divorcing du Feu in 1981, Maya returned from Paris to the United States. Despite having no Bachelor’s degree, she accepted a job at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, becoming the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies. She was one of few full-time professors. Maya began to consider herself “a teacher who writes.”


In 1993, she became the first poet since Robert Frost to recite an original poem at a presidential inauguration. She recited her poem “On The Pulse Of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. In 1995, Maya was praised for her two-year streak for remaining on The New York Times‘ paperback nonfiction best-seller list. This was the longest-running record in the chart’s history. 



Maya Angelou



Awards and Honors

Setting the bar high, Maya Angelou had a goal to direct a feature film, and achieved this 1996 when she directed Down in the Delta. It won the Chicago International Film Festival’s 1998 Audience Choice Award, and was recognized by  the Acapulco Black Film Festival in 1999.


She also won two NAACP Image Awards in the Outstanding Literary Work (nonfiction) category.


She passed away on May 28th, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The news spread quickly and was mourned by many. Prominent public figures issued statements in memory of Maya Angelou, including President Barack Obamawho stated Angelou was “a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman.”





Major Works (selected)


Maya Angelou’s body of writing was immense. Here’s a selection of some of her best known works.


Memoir and nonfiction



I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings  (1969)
Gather Together In My Name (1974)
The Heart of A Woman (1981)
Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now (1993)
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986)
Even The Stars Look Lonesome (1997)
A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002)
Letter to My Daughter (2009)
Mom & Me & Mom (2013)


Poetry



Just Give Me A Cool Drink Of Water ‘fore I Diiie (1971)
On The Pulse Of Morning (the inaugural poem, 1993)
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me (1993)
And Still I Rise (1978)
Phenomenal Woman (2011)
The Complete Poetry (2015)


Plays



Cabaret for Freedom (1960)
The Least of These (1966)
The Best of These (1966)
Gettin’ up Stayed on My Mind (1967)
And Still I Rise (1976)


Films 



Blacks, Blues, Black! (1968)
Georgia, Georgia (1972)
Assignment America (1975)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979)
Sister, Sister (1982)
Brewster Place (1990)
Down in the Delta (1998)
The Black Candle (2012)

More information



Wikipedia
Official website of Maya Angelou
Reader discussion of Maya Angelou’s books on goodreads

Articles, news, etc



Obituary
The Paris Review interview 
Oprah Interview
NYT on Maya Angelou 
10 Questions With Maya Angelou
Why Maya Angelou Disliked Modesty
Maya Angelou’s Final Words
Smithsonian interview

Honoraries and awards



List of Honors by Maya Angelou
Caged Bird Legacy
Maya Angelou Poetry Foundation
Medal of Freedom 2010
Academy of Achievement


*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!


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Published on February 20, 2018 17:39

Grammarly is a Writer’s Tool You Can’t Do Without!

Dorothy Parker famously said, “I can’t write five words but that I change seven.” The young Anaïs Nin complained that her works lacked concentration and clearness. “I drift into vague visions and abstract forms and above all superfluities.”


While it’s true that there are few things that make one a better writer than the practice of writing itself, there’s at least one way to improve the craft and correctness of one’s writing that’s almost like having a live-in copy editor cleaning up your prose as you go along. Grammarly is a writer’s tool you can’t do without — and I honestly can’t believe I’ve been doing without it for these many years!


Grammarly is super-easy to use. Once you sign in, you can test-drive the free option, which in itself is incredibly powerful. All you do is copy your document, say, a blog post, article, or chapter of a book, and paste it into the space provided on your personal page in the program. It then analyzes your document and points out your basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. I’ll admit, I’m big on overusing commas. The program calls me out on that, and any other inadvertent sloppiness and I simply go back into my original doc to correct it. Then, it’s good to go.



If I had all the time in the world, I’d go back and check the hundreds of posts already on the Literary Ladies site. I’ve occasionally spotted embarrassing typos after the fact, but now, nothing new goes up before a Grammarly review.


True grammar nerds can join the Grammarly Facebook community, which is filled with fun grammar tips and discussions. Not surprisingly, Grammarly is used by hundreds of business and universities in addition to the millions of individual writers and students who have fallen in love with this great tool.



Dorothy Parker on writing and revising



Free vs. premium plan

The free plan also includes an extension you can install for the major browsers, so that your writing gets checked wherever you post — for example, on social media. The premium version might be tempting for those with advanced writing needs. For example, it has a plagiarism feature that compares your writing against a library of over 8 billion web pages. If you’ve ever worried that you’ve unintentionally borrowed content, that would be flagged for you.


The premium version also offers vocabulary enhancement, more advanced context-related grammar checking, genre-specific writing suggestions, and a lot more. Both in the free and premium versions, the program keeps tabs on how well you’re doing with the writing you upload. Since I’m in the 96th percentile (“What?” says my dear departed mom, “Why not 100%?”), I think I’m pretty content with the free plan for now, but if my writing pursuits scale up enough, I might be tempted.


Before posting this, I’m going to go into my account to check. Stand by … OK, just two tiny errors. Not bad. But zero errors is better.



How to stop procrastinating and start writing


You might also like: 

How to Stop Procrastinating and Start Writing



Affiliate disclosure: I’m so taken with Grammarly that I joined their affiliate program. All the views expressed here are sincere and my own. If the purchase of a premium account is made through the links in this review, Literary Ladies gets a small commission, which helps us maintain the site and keep it growing!


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Published on February 20, 2018 11:02