Written by Herself: Volume 2: Women's Memoirs From Britain, Africa, Asia and the United States

See Larger Image	Manufacturer: Vintage Written By: Jill Ker Conway Average Customer Rating:


Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 920.720973 EAN: 9780679751090 ISBN: 0679751092 Label: Vintage Manufacturer: Vintage Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 704 Publication Date: 1996-09-17 Publisher: Vintage Release Date: 1996-09-17 Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Reviews: In this powerful new collection, the author of two of the most celebrated memoirs in recent years presents the autobiographical writings of 14 of her English-speaking predecessors and contemporaries. The women who tell their stories in Written By Herself, Vol. II represent three generations, four continents, and a range of experience that is equaled only by the diversity with which they transform life into literature. Here are England's Vera Brittain, commemorating the deaths of the men she loved in the carnage of World War I; Emma Mashinini, who endured imprisonment and torture as a labor organizer in South Africa; Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, the daughter of Indian aristocracy who became an architect of her country's independence; and Edith Mirante, the wisecracking American whose passion for justice took her to the opium trails of Burma. Collected in this stirring volume, their voices demonstrate the ways in which women strive for power, inclusion, and autonomy-- and never fail to move, inspire, and instruct us. Contributors include: Margery Perham,Isak Dinesen,Shudha Mazumdar,Vivian Gornick, Vera Brittain, Elspeth Huxley, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Gloria Wade-Gayles, Angelica Garnett, Emma Mashinini, Meena Alexander, Edith Mirante, Mary Benson, and Ruth First.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Telling Their Own Lives Comment: WBH is a fascinating selection of 20th century women's autobiographies. Any collection pointing readers toward Vera Brittain's exquisite "Testament of Youth" is worthwhile, but there's much to admire here. It's confined to Anglophone countries, and literacy itself ensures a self-selecting sample of exceptional women. But within these limits there is wide variety, making it valuable for womens' studies, sociology and world history. Indian memoirs by Alexander, Mazumdar and Pandit form an especially coherent section on the nationalist movement there, as do the South Africans to a lesser extent. Many chapters highlight the crucial role of education in broadening horizons and opening doors, while offering insight on fundamental aspects of relations between women and men. More detail on authors and their countries is needed, and readers will miss the diversity of the originals, but Conway did well to include lengthy excerpts instead of mere snippets maximizing the number of contributors. (The title evokes "The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano," an early African narrative.) Customer Rating: Summary: Intrigued as well as informed me Comment: This anthology includes both previously published and previously unpublished memoirs, some by women whose names I recognized and others by women whose names I'd never heard before. Editor Jill Ker Conway, author of The Road from Coorain, has selected a true cross section. Physicians trained in the days when "ladies" simply didn't enter that profession, scientists, activists, and scholars, each writer speaks powerfully in her own voice; and the result is a work that intrigued as well as informed me. I'm looking forward to reading the second volume. Customer Rating: Summary: Powerful and inspirational Comment: I discovered this book on my own, no one told me about it. I bought it mostly on the strength of Jill Ker Conway's writings. I trust her judgement. This book is now at the top of my favorites. It is a compilation of twenty-five autobigraphical sketches, written with truth, genius and verve, each one of them. I had to take them one at a time, letting each one digest before I went on. Each time I thought, phew, the next one won't match up and yet it did. The voices and stories are extraordinary. I am going to buy it as a gift over and over again. It is more than a jewel. It is a necklace of gems. Customer Rating: Summary: Brilliant compilation of women's stories Comment: Jill Ker Conway is a good writer and editor. She has collected here a group of American women's stories, all of which are fascinating. Before each memoir, she writes a short explanation, but it is the women's stories that stick with you. The ones that stuck with me most were the one of the escaping slave woman, who hid in an attic crawl space for almost a year, so desperate was she for freedom -- and the one written by Margaret Sanger. I give this book frequently as a gift to young women -- for Bat Mitzvah, graduation, to mark some important milestone in their lives. By reading about other women's struggles to define their lives, you learn more about your own. More Reviews