Celebrated poet , playwright and memoiristMaya Angelou(1928 - 2014 ) had a dizzying number of firsts and crammed a lot of living into her life . " To know her life story is to at the same time wonder what on world you have been doing with your own life and feel happy that you did n’t have to go through half the things she has . Before she hit 40 she had been a professional professional dancer , prostitute , madam , lecturer , militant , vocalizer and editor , " write Gary Youngein the Guardian . And that ’s just the half of it . Here are some other things you may not have known .
1. She Used to Be a Calypso Singer/Dancer
As a youthful exclusive female parent , Angelou bear the bills at one clock time work as a stripper at a club . A customer who later became a friend told her about an opening at the happening San Francisco nightclub The Purple Onion . She put together an act where she babble calypso songs and tell stories . She later star in the film " Calypso Heatwave " and released an record album as " Miss Calypso , " both in 1957 . ( Calypso music was having a moment in the U.S. in the recent ' L . )
2. She Wrote Her First Book on a Dare
Angelou ’s best - known book was her first one , " I recognize Why the Caged Bird Sings , " which secern the story of her early lifetime . But she never lay out out to be a writer . By the tardy ' 60s , she was get a TV series for PBS . She went out to dinner with author James Baldwin , cartoonist Jules Feiffer and his married woman Judy . " All three of them are great utterer . They exit on with their account and I had to fight for the right to toy it good . I had to insert myself to tell some floor too , " she recalled in aParis Review consultation .
The stories were good enough that the next day Judy Feiffer recount Bob Loomis , an editor at Random House , that he should seek to get Angelou to compose an autobiography . She turned him down three metre . In the same consultation she added , " Then he mouth to James Baldwin . Jimmy gave him a ploy which always work with me — though I ’m not lofty to say that . The next time he scream , he said , ' Well , Miss Angelou . I wo n’t bother you again . It ’s just as well that you do n’t attempt to write this book , because to spell autobiography as literature is almost unacceptable . ' I said , ' What are you talk about ? I ’ll do it . ' "
3. She Racked Up a Lot of Firsts
Angelou was thefirst fatal distaff cable car conductorin San Francisco at years 16 . She was also the first African - American woman to write a nonfiction bestseller ( 1969 ’s " I jazz Why the Caged Bird Sings " ) , get a screenplay produced ( 1972 ’s " Georgia Georgia " ) anddirect a major movie(1998 ’s " Down in the Delta " ) .
4. She Married Her Third Husband Three Times
Angelou ’s third marriage was to Paul du Feu , a Welsh master carpenter , comic strip writer and former husband of feminist Germaine Greer . ( He ’d also posed with Greer for British Cosmopolitan ’s first nude centerfold . ) " He say that if I were British or he black he ’d be conformable to just live together . But with the remainder in cultures , he wanted to make a public financial statement . So we married …. We care the ceremonial occasion so much , and love each other so much , that we ’ve been married doubly since , and we ’ll do it again , " shetold People magazinein 1975 . woefully , their marriage ended in 1981 . Angelou has said she ’s not the gentle person to inhabit with .
5. She and Coretta Scott King Shared a Special Bond
Angelou ’s natal day was on April 4 , the same day as the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Angelou had been the northerly coordinator of King ’s southerly Christian Leadership Conference . For years after King ’s end , she did not celebrate her birthday . However , shealways called Coretta , his widow woman , andsent her flowerson that twenty-four hours .
6. Her Commemorative Postal Stamp Featured a Quote - NOT By Her
Angelou ’s 2015 stamp boast the line of merchandise " A doll does n’t sing because it has an answer , it blab because it has a song " bypoet Joan Walsh Anglund . Angelou quoted it in some interview , but did n’t take credit for it . ( The U.S. Postal Service said it was unaware of the error until a paper point it out after the fact . ) This is not the only penning misattributed to Angelou . At leasttwo democratic poemsmaking the round of drinks on the internethave been incorrectly attributedto her .
