A Pan-American Life: Selected Poetry and Prose of Muna Lee

by Muna Lee, Jonathan Cohen (Editor), Aurora Levins Morales (Foreword)

The extraordinary Muna Lee was a brilliant writer, lyric poet, translator, diplomat, feminist and rights activist, and, above all, a Pan-Americanist. During the twentieth century, she helped shape the literary and social landscapes of the Americas. This is the first biography of her remarkable life and a collection of her diverse writings, which  embody her vision of Pan America, an old concept that remains new and meaningful today.

302 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2004

About the author

A longterm resident of Puerto Rico from 1920 until her death, she was an activist on issues of women's suffrage and equal rights in Latin America. Lee worked for more than two decades in cultural affairs for the United States State Department, promoting artistic and literature exchanges between Latin America and the US, as well as other countries.

She is remembered for her poetry, but also co-authored five detective novels with Maurice Guinness, an American Shell Oil executive, under the pen name Newton Gayle.

Reviews

[Jackie]

Wonderful poetry that I would have never found in another book! Her work is beautiful!

[Lucas]

Thought this was gonna make me feel more Puerto Rican. Forgot that she was from Alabama; now I feel Panamerican, tho I think there's some Bolivarian devil on my shoulder ready to tear that to shreds. Gotta get out the Sor Juana now.