Maya Angelou was born in 1938, and has led a full and public life. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, her most famous work, is the poeticized true story of her childhood in Arkansas and California. Angelou has confronted mixed reviews of her work since she began writing, but no one questions her passion and ambition. Throughout her life, and sometimes all at once, she has been a singer, a dancer, a playwright, an actress on stage and screen, a mother, a wife ("I've never told anyone how many times I've been married...people tend to think that if a person marries frequently, he or she is frivolous") and a friend to everyone from author James Baldwin to Martin Luther King, Jr. Years ago, for a short time she was a prostitute, and has dabbled in
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