SINGIN' AND SWINGIN' AND GETTIN' MERRY LIKE CHRISTMAS, INSCRIBED BY MAYA ANGELOU

ANGELOU, Maya. Singin' and swingin' and gettin' merry like Christmas. New York: Random House, (1976). Octavo, original half red cloth, original dust jacket. $700.

First edition of the third volume in Angelou's powerful memoir that began with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, boldly inscribed by the author on the half title, "J— V—, Joy! Maya Angelou 5/87."

Singin' and Swingin', the third volume in Angelou's six-volume autobiography, is "honest, funny and heartwarming" (Washington Star). Following I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) and Gather Together in My Name (1974), Angelou here offers a "rare kind of literary model, the working mother… and imaginatively renders the black experience" (Lupton, Maya Angelou, 109-112). She "may be one of the best hunters of the heart, one of the best to explore the insides of folks, black or white, and find what moves them, what makes them real and tangible to themselves and others" (Christian Science Monitor). First edition, first printing: number line endings with "2" and "9." Front free endpaper with bookseller's small ticket.

Book with faint traces of wear to edges, in a price-clipped dust jacket with a few tiny spots of light soiling. A near-fine inscribed copy.