African-American Authors:
Memoirs and Reminiscences
Autobiographical selections.
There are 14 items | Showing 1 to 14
Even the Stars Look Lonesome by Angelou, Maya
Notes: This renowned author reflects on Black women, pride, and life experiences.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0375500316
Publisher: Random House
Published: 1997
Callnumber: 818 An43e
Coming up Down Home: a Memoir of a Southern Childhood by Brown, Cecil
Notes: Brown presents vivid memories of growing up in the racial strife of the rural South in the
nineteen-fifties through the sixties.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0880012935
Publisher: Ecco Press
Published: 1993
Callnumber: 813 B8123za2
Sweet Summer: Growing up With & Without My Dad by Campbell, Bebe Moore
Notes: As a youth, Campbell spent winters in Philadelphia with her formal, yet loving mother
and spent summers in rural North Carolina with her affectionate father.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0345366948
Publisher: Putnam
Published: 1989
Callnumber: 973.0496 C152s
Black Ice by Cary, Lorene
Notes: Recruited in 1971 by St. Paul's, a prep school in New Hampshire (only then opening their doors to girls and Blacks), the Philadelphia born Cary not only survived the experience, but also returned there to teach.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0679737456
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 1991
Callnumber: 373.1829 C259b
Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood by hooks, bell
Notes: Through vignettes, hooks tells of her growing up in a large, poor Southern family and of
her subsequent rebellion.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0805041451
Publisher: Holt
Published: 1996
Callnumber: 305.4889 H764bo
Only Son by Johnson, John
Notes: Johnson, an accomplished journalist, returns home to care for his once abusive father,
who is now dying of cancer.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0446525529
Publisher: Warner
Published: 2002
Callnumber: 070.924 J633o
My Brother by Kincaid, Jamaica
Notes: The author's return to Antigua leads to a renewed relationship with her mother and her much younger brother who is dying of AIDS.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0374216819
Publisher: Farrar
Published: 1997
Callnumber: 813 K573za5
The Color of Water: a Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by McBride, James
Notes: The weight of race and of difference comes to light as McBride discovers his mother's
true heritage.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 1573220221
Publisher: Riverhead
Published: 1996
Callnumber: 974.71 M122c2
Crabcakes by McPherson, James Alan
Notes: With his thoughts anchored in childhood memories of Baltimore, McPherson searches for
self and place in these lyrical pieces about people, books, and being a Black man in
Japan.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0684834650
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1998
Callnumber: 0684834650
When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: a Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down by Morgan, Joan
Notes: Morgan relates her hesitant journey from "ghetto girl" in the Bronx to hip-hop
feminist, touching on diverse concerns of African American women today.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 068486861X
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2000
Callnumber: 973.0496 M822w2
Bad Boy: a Memoir by Myers, Walter Dean
Notes: Though a self-described juvenile delinquent, Myers was a voracious reader and an
aspiring writer.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0060295236
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2001
Callnumber: 813 M992za122
Claiming Kin: Confronting the History of an African American Family by Scruggs, Afi
Notes: After her father's death, a journalist goes in search of roots and the meaning of family.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0312261357
Publisher: St. Martin's
Published: 2002
Callnumber: 976.856 Scr76c
The Richer, the Poorer: Stories, Sketches and Reminiscences by West, Dorothy
Notes: West touches on many topics covering a 70 year span, from the age of 14
through her years of involvement in the Harlem Renaissance.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0385471459
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 1995
Callnumber: 813 W5195za6
Brothers and Keepers by Wideman, John Edgar
Notes: Wideman meditates on how two brothers from the same family ended up in very different places.
Reading Level: Adult
ISBN: 0030617545
Publisher: Holt
Published: 1984
Callnumber: 364.3092 W633w2