I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou's 1969 autobiography, the first of seven volumes, covers her childhood and early youth. At three, Maya and her brother Bailey go to Stamps, Arkansas, into the care of a grandmother who ran a store for the town's black community, and the story closes when Maya becomes a mother at 16. Along the way she faces racism and trauma, and finds refuge in books and the power of words. Her friend James Baldwin and her editor Robert Loomis pushed her to write an autobiography that also worked as literature. A 1970 National Book Award nominee, it has also faced bans and challenges in some libraries and schools over its explicit treatment of rape and racism.

Richard Branson put it on his list of 65 books to read in a lifetime. Kapwing co-founder Julia Enthoven praised the writing and the narrator's voice, and found its picture of that time in history both sad and fascinating.