Biography & Autobiography - Cultural Heritage

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Strength in What Remains: A Journey o...

Tracy Kidder

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of the modern classics Mountains Beyond Mountains and The Soul of a New Machine returns with the extraordinary true story of a young man and his will to surviveIn this remarkable book, New York Time...

Unabridged CD
Published: Aug 2009

The Life and Times of Frederick Dougl...

Frederick Douglass

Born around 1817 in Maryland, Frederick Douglass was a former plantation slave who went on to become a brilliant writer and eloquent orator. In this amazing first-hand narrative, published in 1881, he vividly recounts his early years,...

Paperback
Published: Dec 2003

A Song Flung Up to Heaven

Maya Angelou

When this volume of her autobiography opens, Angelou is returning home from Africa to work alongside Malcolm X. However, she shortly thereafter learns of his assassination and begins her dark journey through the violent terrain of the...

Paperback
Published: Jan 2002

Black Boy

Richard Wright

One rises from the reading of such a book with mixed thoughts. Richard Wright uses vigorous and straightforward English; often there is real beauty in his words even when they are mingled with sadism....Yet at the result one is baffle...

Unabridged CD
Published: Feb 2005

Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughte...

Essie Mae Washington-Williams

The illegitimate half African-American daughter of the southern Senator best known for his twenty-four-hour filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 reveals the discrepancies between the father she knew and his public persona, ...

Paperback
Published: Feb 2006

The Hemingses of Monticello: An Ameri...

Annette Gordon-Reed

Winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize: "[A] commanding and important book."—Jill Lepore, The New Yorker This epic work—named a best book of the year by the Washington Post, Time, the Los Angeles Times...

Unabridged CD
Published: Oct 2008

On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journe...

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

In On the Shoulders of Giants, indomitable basketball star and bestselling author and historian Kareem Abdul-Jabbar invites readers on an extraordinarily personal journey back to his birthplace, through one of the greatest political, ...

Unabridged CD
Published: Apr 2007

Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir

Kao Kalia Yang

In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America. But lacking a written language of their own, the Hmo...

Paperback
Published: Apr 2008

Life on the Color Line: The True Stor...

Gregory Howard Williams

The author recounts the shock he experienced when he learned that his father's relatives in Muncie, Indiana, were poor and black, and describes the prejudice that he and his brother endured from both sides. Reprint. NYT.

Paperback
Published: Feb 1996

My (Underground) American Dream: My T...

Julissa Arce

What does an undocumented immigrant look like? What kind of family must she come from? How could she get into this country? What is the true price she must pay to remain in the United States? JULISSA ARCE knows firsthand that the most...

Paperback
Published: Sep 2017

Nobody Knows My Name

James A. Baldwin

Told with Baldwin's characteristically unflinching honesty, this collection of illuminating, deeply felt essays examines topics ranging from race relations in the United States to the role of the writer in society, and offers personal...

Paperback
Published: Dec 1992

Rosa Parks

Douglas Brinkley

This brief life of Rosa Parks--whose brave decision not to give up her seat on an Alabama bus in 1955 was one of the key moments in the Civil Rights movement--reexamines her life and times. Brinkley is a historian known and respected ...

Paperback
Published: Nov 2005

Manchild in the Promised Land

Claude Brown

One of the most remarkable autobiographies of our time, Manchild in the Promised Land is a seminal work of modern literature published during a literary era marked by the ascendance of black writers like Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison,...

Paperback
Published: Jan 2012

Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable ...

Sujatha Gidla

A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2017A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2017A Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2017"Ants Among Elephants is an arresting, affecting and ultimately enlightening memoir. It is quite possibly...

Paperback
Published: Jul 2018

The Negro Travelers' Green Book: 1954...

Victor H. Green

In the segregated US of the mid-twentieth century, African-American travelers could have a hard time finding towns where they were legally allowed to stay at night and hotels, restaurants, and service stations willing to serve them. V...

Paperback
Published: Jan 2019

The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.,...

Martin Luther King

Back in print in this handy pocket paperback format, ideal for Martin Luther King's Birthday (January 15) and Black History Month. (February). Over 200,000 copies sold--this perennial classic belongs in every home, school and library....

Paperback
Published: Apr 2001

White Like Her: My Family's Story of ...

Gail Lukasik

As seen on The Today Show and in the Washington Post's most inspiring stories of the year! “Important in helping us understand America’s complex racial history.”—Kenyatta D. Berry, Host of PBS&rsqu...

Paperback
Published: Feb 2021

The Ditchdigger's Daughters

Yvonne S. Thornton

Donald Thornton was a ditchdigger who wanted more for his six daughters, saying: "I love you better than I love life," he assured his children. "But I'm not always gonna be around to look after you, and no man's gonna come along and ...

Unabridged MP3-CD
Published: Jul 2008

Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Mem...

Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice has excelled as a diplomat, political scientist, and concert pianist.  Her achievements run the gamut from helping to oversee the collapse of communism in Europe and the decline of the Soviet Union, to working to pro...

Paperback
Published: Oct 2011

The Color of Water 10th Anniversary E...

James McBride

A young black man’s search to uncover his white mother’s past and his own identity. Born in Poland, the daughter of a rabbi, James McBride’s mother grew up in the Southern United States, ran away to Harlem, married a...

Paperback
Published: Jan 2006

A Piece of Cake: A Memoir

Cupcake Brown

There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gangbanging, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution, or homelessness.Cupcake Brown...

Paperback
Published: Apr 2007

Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography ...

Rebecca Walker

Hailed as 'compelling' by The Washington Post and 'stunningly honest' by The San Francisco Chronicle, this memoir has hit bestseller lists and earned critical praise from coast to coast. Rebecca Walker was born in 1969 to author Alice...

Paperback
Published: Jan 2002

Life of Black Hawk, or Ma-ka-tai-me-s...

Hawk Black

A rediscovered, defiant work of Native American literature, presented here on the 175th anniversary of its first publication Upon its publication in 1833, this unflinching narrative by the vanquished Sauk leader Black Hawk was the fir...

Paperback
Published: May 2008

His Promised Land: The Autobiography ...

John P. Parker

John P. Parker is one of the few African Americans whose battle against slavery we can now turn to in his own words. He recounts dramatically how he helped fugitive slaves to cross the Ohio River from Kentucky and go north to freedom....

Paperback
Published: Jan 1998

Solitary

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN NONFICTIONSolitary is the unforgettable life story of a man who served more than four decades in solitary confinement―in a 6-foot by 9-foot cell, 23 hours a day, in notorious Angola prison in ...

Paperback
Published: Feb 2020

The Grave on the Wall

Award-winning poet Brandon Shimoda has crafted a lyrical portrait of his paternal grandfather, Midori Shimoda, whose life—child migrant, talented photographer, suspected enemy alien and spy, desert wanderer, American citizen—mirro...

Paperback
Published: Jun 2019

Letter to My Daughter

Maya Angelou

For a world of devoted readers, a much-awaited new volume of absorbing stories and inspirational wisdom from one of our best-loved writers.Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals ...

Unabridged CD
Published: Sep 2008

Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughte...

June Cross

A powerful memoir about the complicated but ultimately loving relationship between a black daughter and her white mother Secret Daughter is a deftly drawn and moving portrait of a childhood spent in two very different worlds: one w...

Paperback
Published: May 2007

Black Boy

Richard Wright

Richard Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi amid poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those around him; at six he was a 'drunkard,' hanging about in taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self...

Paperback
Published: Apr 2007

Negroland: A Memoir

Margo Jefferson

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNew York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2015New York Times: Dwight Garner's Best Books of 2015Washington Post: 10 Best Books of 2015Los Angeles Times: 31 Best Nonfiction Books of 2015Marie Claire: Best Books ...

Paperback
Published: Aug 2016
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