8vo. Original black cloth gilt, top edge stained red; dust jacket.

FIRST EDITION. INSCRIBED BY MAYA ANGELOU: "Joy!.. The caged bird sings of freedom." I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings marks the first volume in what would ultimately become a seven volume autobiography. It was written in the months following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on 4 April 1968 - coincidentally, also Maya Angelou's birthday - at the suggestion of James Baldwin, as a way of working through her grief and depression over King's death. Baldwin would later call the resulting work "a Biblical study of life in the midst of death." Its themes of identity, racism, trauma, and literacy led to equal parts acclaim and criticism, with the book hailed as one of the greatest works of biography ever produced by an American author and one of the most frequently banned or challenged books in the United States.