I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. by ANGELOU, Maya - 1969

New York: Random House, 1969. Her first volume of autobiographical fiction, inscribed First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the dedication page, "Bill Berger, Joy! Maya Angelou. 1/88". Angelou has previously been quoted as saying that "When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness... all the good things". Inscribed copies of Maya Angelou's works are uncommon; Angelou would usually sign or inscribe books with just her name and the salutation "Joy!".
Angelou wrote this, her first volume of autobiographical fiction, after attending a dinner party with James Baldwin, cartoonist Jules Feiffer and his wife Judy, and Random House editor Robert Loomis. Baldwin and Loomis challenged her to write "an autobiography as literature" (quoted by Sethi), and the subsequent work brought her international acclaim. She was hailed as a new kind of memoirist: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970 and remained on The New York Times paperback bestseller list for two years. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt and red, top edge red. With dust jacket. Light foxing to edges and endpapers, faint offsetting to front free endpaper, trivial crease to p. 237. A very good copy indeed in a nice example of the jacket, flaps a little toned, else bright and sharp. Anita Sethi, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Review", The Guardian, 18 August 2013, available online.