Maya Angelou's literary significance rests upon her exceptional ability to tell her life story as both a human being and a black American woman in the twentieth century. Four serial autobiographical volumes have been published to date (in 1970, 1974, 1976, and 1981), covering the period from 1928 to the mid-1960s; more may be expected. She asserts in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970): "The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance." And yet, Angelou's own autobiographies and vivid lectures about herself, ranging in tone from warmly humorous to bitterly satiric, have won a popular and critical following that is both respectful and enthusiastic.

As she adds successive volumes to her life story, she is performing for...