100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

New on the blog! πŸ‡―πŸ‡΅ Japanese Healing Fiction & β˜• The Perfect Winter Reads

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

The internationally bestselling classic
Series: VMC
4.3 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 572,355 ratings, 18,785 reviews)
Brief Description
A beautiful new edition of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, the iconic, beloved and deeply moving first volume of Maya Angelou's autobiography. The international classic and bestseller, Maya Angelou's memoir paints a portrait of 'a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2500
Elsewhere:
$2799
OVERNIGHT NZ-WIDE DELIVERY

Found a better price? Request a price match

Maya Angelou's phenomenal seven volume autobiography is now available on the Virago Modern Classics list.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A beautiful new edition of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, the iconic, beloved and deeply moving first volume of Maya Angelou's autobiography.

The international classic and bestseller, Maya Angelou's memoir paints a portrait of 'a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' - BARACK OBAMA.

"I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again" - Maya Angelou.

In this first volume of her seven books of autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American South of the 1930s. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a Black woman, she has known discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement, and celebration.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity. - JAMES BALDWIN

β€œShe moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds.” - OPRAH WINFREY

β€œShe was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was a real original. There is no duplicate." - TONI MORRISON

Series: VMC

View all
  • I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
    A beautiful new edition of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, the iconic, beloved and deeply moving first volume of Maya Angelou's autobiography. The international classic and bestseller, Maya Angelou's memoir paints a portrait of 'a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' - BARACK OBAMA. "I write about being a Black American woman, however, I...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Tipping The Velvet
    From the oyster huts of Whitstable to the music halls of Victorian London, Tipping the Velvet is the glorious first novel from this much-loved author. 'Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl - I knew it at once! - that...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Jamaica Inn
    DISCOVER THE DU MAURIER DARK ROMANCE COLLECTION 'A brilliantly executed thriller' VOGUE 'Daphne du Maurier has no equal' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'The master of slow-burning menace' STACEY HALLS 'Her influence on fiction is incalculable, her imagination unsurpassable' ANDREW MICHAEL HURLEY She was a woman, and for no reason in heaven or earth she loved him. He had kissed her, and she...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Girl, Interrupted
    Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever. In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital to be...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Far Cry From Kensington
    I can't help it. Sometimes the words just come out and I can't stop them. It feels like preaching the gospel. When publishing assistant and war widow Nancy Hawkins tells Hector Bartlett he 'urinates frightful prose', the repercussions are swift. Losing not one, but two, much-sought-after literary jobs, Mrs Hawkins finds herself embroiled in a mystery involving anonymous letters, quack...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Good Behaviour
    We kept our heads above the morass, stifled screaming despairs only by the exercise of Good Behaviour. Behind the gates of Temple Alice, the aristocratic St Charles family is sinking into a state of decaying grace. Aroon, the unlovely daughter of the house, silently longs for affection - which she receives neither from her icy mother nor her hunting-obsessed father....
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Excellent Women
    INTRODUCED BY ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH 'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' - RICHARD OSMAN Mildred Lathbury is one of those excellent women who are often taken for granted. She is a godsend, 'capable of dealing with most of the stock situations or even the great moments of life - birth, marriage, death, the successful jumble sale, the garden fete...
    Paperback
    $2600
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God
    Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. When, at sixteen, Janie is caught kissing shiftless Johnny Taylor, her grandmother swiftly marries her off to an old man with sixty acres. Janie endures two stifling marriages before meeting the man of her dreamsβ€”who offers...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Magic Toyshop
    The boldest of English women writers - Lorna Sage Her writing is pyrotechnic - fuelled with ideas, packed with images and spangling the night with her starry language - Observer She can glide from ancient to modern, from darkness to luminosity, from depravity to comedy without any hint of strain and without losing the elusive power of the original tales...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Tortoise And The Hare
    The re-dipping of dishes was a small matter, but the emotional texture of married life is made up of small matters. This one had become invested with a fatal quality. Imogen, the beautiful and much younger wife of distinguished barrister Evelyn Gresham, is facing the greatest challenge of her married life. Their neighbour Blanche Silcox, competent, middle-aged and tweedy -...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The River
    By the bestselling author of Black Narcissus and The Greengage Summer The River will make you laugh, make you cry and, in its way, change you forever' JULIE MYERSON 'Her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty' NEW YORK TIMES 'Bold, beautiful . . . everyone’s appetites will be satisfied' ELLE The River is Rumer Godden's beautiful tribute to India...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Enchanted April
    A discreet advertisement in The Times, addressed to 'Those who Appreciate Wisteria and Sunshine...' is the impetus for a revelatory month for four very different women. High above the bay on the Italian Riviera stands San Salvatore, a mediaeval castle. Beckoned to this haven are Mrs. Wilkins, Mrs Arbuthnot, Mrs Fisher and Lady Caroline Dester, each quietly craving a respite....
    Hardback
    $4999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780349017068

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 04 April 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Virago Press Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 28.0mm

Width: 126.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 260g

Pages: 320

About the Author

Maya Angelou was one of the world's most important writers and activists. Born 4 April 1928, she lived and chronicled an extraordinary life: rising from poverty, violence and racism, she became a renowned author, memoirist, poet, playwright, civil rights' activist - working with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. She wrote and performed a poem, 'On the Pulse of Morning', for President Clinton on his inauguration. She was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and was honoured by more than seventy universities throughout the world.

She first thrilled the world with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). This was followed by six volumes of autobiography, the seventh and final volume, Mom & Me & Mom, published in 2013. She wrote three collections of essays; many volumes of poetry, including His Day is Done, a tribute to Nelson Mandela; and two cookbooks. She had a lifetime appointment as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University of North Carolina. She died in 2014.

Also by Dr Maya Angelou

View all
  • Letter To My Daughter
    Letter to My Daughter is a heartfelt and profoundly inspiring collection of essays, letters, and poetry by the incomparable Dr Maya Angelou. Dedicated to the daughter she never had yet symbolically sees all around her, this book encapsulates the wisdom and life lessons that Angelou gathered throughout her tumultuous yet extraordinary life. With her signature eloquence and grace, Angelou shares...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • And Still I Rise
    Maya Angelou's poetry – lyrical and dramatic, exuberant and playful – speaks of love, longing, and partings; of Saturday night partying, and the smells and sounds of Southern cities; of freedom and shattered dreams. 'The caged bird sings/ with a fearful trill/ of things unknown/ but longed for still/ and his tune is heard/ on the distant hill/ for the...
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $2899
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Heart Of A Woman
    From the beloved and bestselling author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS, this memoir chronicles Maya Angelou's involvement with the civil rights movement. 'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMA Maya Angelou's seven volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Loving the world, she...
    Paperback
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Gather Together In My Name
    The sequel to I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings 'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' β€” BARACK OBAMA Maya Angelou's seven volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Though fiercely loving the world, as a black woman, she also knows its cruelty. Angelou has known discrimination...
    Paperback
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
    Maya Angelou's seven volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a Black woman, she has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement, and celebration. In this first volume of her six books of autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird...
    Hardback
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes
    A memoir about home and belonging, from the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' β€” Barack Obama Maya Angelou's seven volumes of autobiography, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Though she...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • A Song Flung Up to Heaven
    A memoir of politics and activism, from the bestselling and beloved author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings 'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' β€” BARACK OBAMA It is 1964 and Maya Angelou is on her way back home, leaving behind her beloved β€” and now seriously teenage β€” son Guy, to finish...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Mom and Me and Mom
    'In the first decade of the twentieth century, it was not a good time to be born black, or woman, in America.' So begins this stunning portrait of Vivian Baxter Johnson: the first black woman officer in the Merchant Marines, purveyor of a gambling business and rooming house, and mother to Maya Angelou, beloved and bestselling author of I Know...
    Paperback
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Singin' & Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
    A memoir about motherhood and music from the bestselling author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS 'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMA Maya Angelou's seven volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a black...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • And Still I Rise
    A beautiful and inspiring collection of poetry by Maya Angelou, author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and 'a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' (BARACK OBAMA). 'I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. This is how we are,...
    Hardback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Rainbow in the Cloud
    Since the publication of her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou has been celebrated as one of America's most important writers and her words are indelibly imprinted on the hearts of millions. Inspired by the woman who has inspired us all, Rainbow in the Cloud offers nearly 300 of Dr Angelou's wonderful quotes, organised in...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry
    From her reflections on African American life and hardship in Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie to her revolutionary celebrations of womanhood in Phenomenal Woman and Still I Rise, and her elegant tributes to dignitaries Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela (On the Pulse of Morning and His Day Is Done, respectively), every inspiring word of...
    Hardback
    $4999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

More from Biography & Memoir

View all
  • New Release
    Dogs, Boys and Other Things I've Cried About
    From the social media superstar behind @SimonSits, Isabel Klee--known for her heartwarming tales of dog rescue--comes an utterly winning memoir about a twentysomething woman's search for true love in New York City and the dogs who helped her find it. A Jersey girl by birth, Isabel Klee had always wanted to live in New York City. At age 20, she...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Signed Copy
    New Release
    Stakes
    Read our interview with author Noelle McCarthy! A darkly funny, sparkling follow-up to the author’s bestselling memoirΒ Grand. You have to invite him in. You have to want the vampire’s badness in the house with you. Growing up in Catholic Ireland, Noelle McCarthy is captivated by Bram Stoker’sΒ Dracula. The vampire is a risk-free fantasy, a suave alternative to the fraught realities...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Famesick
    Chronicling the tumultuous decade between the premiere of Girls to her 2021 shotgunΒ wedding (minus the baby, because she has no uterus), Lena Dunham takes us through herΒ journey with her trademark mix of humor, unsparing honesty, and keen eye for detail. We peek behind the scenes - of her work, her family, her relationships, and her battle to reclaim her body...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Built for This
    Raised among strong women, butcher's benches, and hard ideas about what men are meant to be, Brad Poulter grows up knowing he's different long before he has the words for it. But in late '90s small-town New Zealand, 'different' isn't discussed, it's managed. Joining the Royal New Zealand Navy offers escape, certainty, and belonging. The rules are clear, the uniform...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Even the Good Girls Will Cry
    Thanks to a thrown beer bottle and a fan letter to a P.O. box, Melissa Auf der Maur's first band scored an opening slot for the Smashing Pumpkins in her bohemian home town, Montreal. Sensing Melissa's talent, Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love. Whisked from her local scene, Melissa joined Hole just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    An Ocean and a Day
    An utterly riveting, moving and poignant memoir of grief and loss that will speak to anyone who's ever lost someone they love. An Ocean and a Day is Hannah Richell's personal account of losing her husband, Matt, in a surfing accident on Tamarama beach in 2014. It is the story of the grief journey she travelled over the first two...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Place to Stand
    A Place to Stand by Clare Ward is a profound memoir that delves into the life of a country doctor living and working in the Hokianga Harbour area in the far north of Aotearoa New Zealand. This region is sparsely populated and poses numerous health challenges. This thoughtful account details Clare’s thirty-year career, highlighting the people she works with and...
    Hardback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    Backorder
    Ships early August
  • New Release
    Rule of Lies
    Written with all the pace and energy of a John Grisham novel … An incredible true story and a great read! BILL BROWDER, author of Red Notice and Freezing Order An American lawyer’s brilliant, propulsive story of witnessing and playing a part in the transformation of Russia under Yeltsin and Putin. A true tale of fascinating personalities, criminal intrigue, harrowing...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Rory
    TheΒ New York TimesΒ bestseller The #1Β Irish TimesΒ bestseller The definitive biography of Rory McIlroy, the most important, popular and confounding player of the post-Tiger era. Rory McIlroy contains multitudes. The child of a working-class family from a small town in a war-torn homeland now commutes to work in his own private jet and counts billionaires as confidants. He can overwhelm a golf...
    Paperback
    $3699
    Elsewhere:
    $4199
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Te Kaikaukau | The Swimmer
    Novelist, memoirist and playwright Witi Ihimaera – author of Pounamu, Pounamu and The Whale Rider – decided, at the age of eighty, to dive back into the water and spend a year full-time at Te Wānanga Takiura, immersing himself in his own language, in te reo Māori. This book tells the story of this kaikaukau, this swimmer, and his year...
    Paperback
    $3500
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    This Is Me: A Reckoning
    This is a searingly honest and moving memoir from double Golden Globe-nominatedactress Hayden Panettiere. Hayden Panettiere has been in front of the camera since before she could talk. She roseto stardom typecasted as Hollywood's blonde girl next door. As a young celebrity,naysayers were certain she would crash and burn. Not one to disappoint, she did.Hayden Panettiere's irreverent memoir satisfies our...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Beyond Life and Death
    From martial arts icon and global film star Jet Li comes a revelatory, profound and inspiring guide to self-mastery and spiritual wisdom, distilled into 10 essential life lessons. Martial arts legend and international movie star Jet Li distils 10 powerful insights from his iconic career, his personal life and philosophies, and his 30-year Buddhist practice. Jet Li's story defies legend....
    By Jet Li
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 80,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.