The late Lorraine Williams Bolton once said, speaking of Gwendolyn Brooks, "the pattern of her rearing was similar to...that of many Chicagoans. It tended to encourage inwardness and withdrawal into imaginative resources." (Kent 4) Brooks's childhood and upbringing held a bearing upon her future works, and can be seen laced throughout her poetry and writing. Her youth affected not only herself but also the readers and critics around the world who perused her works, for which her life had such an immense impact. Who was Gwendolyn Brooks and how did her life influence her works"

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born on 7 June 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. She would be the first of two children to parents David and Keziah Brooks. After Gwendolyn's birth, the Brookses moved back to Chicago, where David and Keziah had first met. Gwendolyn's brother, Raymond, was born a short sixteen months later, after which the...