Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is a poet and award-winning author known for her acclaimed memoir I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings and her numerous poetry and essay collections.
Born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, writer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou is known for
her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first
nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. In 1971, Angelou published the Pulitzer Prizenominated poetry collection Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die. She later wrote the poem
"On the Pulse of Morning"one of her most famous workswhich she recited at President Bill
Clinton's inauguration in 1993. Angelou received several honors throughout her career, including two
NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, in 2005 and
2009. She died on May 28, 2014.
Early Years
Multi-talented barely seems to cover the depth and breadth of Maya Angelou's accomplishments.
She was an author, actress, screenwriter, dancer and poet. Born Marguerite Annie Johnson, Angelou
had a difficult childhood. Her parents split up when she was very young, and she and her older
brother, Bailey, were sent to live with their father's mother, Anne Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas.
As an African American, Angelou experienced firsthand racial prejudices and discrimination in
Arkansas. She also suffered at the hands of a family associate around the age of 7: During a visit with
her mother, Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend. Then, as vengeance for the sexual
assault, Angelou's uncles killed the boyfriend. So traumatized by the experience, Angelou stopped
talking. She returned to Arkansas and spent years as a virtual mute.
During World War II, Angelou moved to San Francisco, California, where she won a scholarship to
study dance and acting at the California Labor School. Also during this time, Angelou became the
first black female cable car conductora job she held only briefly, in San Francisco.
In 1944, a 16-year-old Angelou gave birth to a son, Guy (a short-lived high school relationship had led
to the pregnancy), thereafter working a number of jobs to support herself and her child. In 1952, the
future literary icon wed Anastasios Angelopulos, a Greek sailor from whom she took her professional
namea blend of her childhood nickname, "Maya," and a shortened version of his surname.
Career Beginnings
In the mid-1950s, Angelou's career as a performer began to take off. She landed a role in a touring
production of Porgy and Bess, later appearing in the off-Broadway production Calypso Heat Wave
(1957) and releasing her first album, Miss Calypso (1957). A member of the Harlem Writers Guild and
a civil rights activist, Angelou organized and starred in the musical revue Cabaret for Freedom as a
benefit for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also serving as the SCLC's northern
coordinator.

In 1961, Angelou appeared in an off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks with James Earl
Jones, Lou Gossett Jr. and Cicely Tyson. While the play earned strong reviews, Angelou moved on to
other pursuits, spending much of the 1960s abroad; she first lived in Egypt and then in Ghana,
working as an editor and a freelance writer. Angelou also held a position at the University of Ghana
for a time.

After returning to the United States, Angelou was urged by friend and fellow writer James Baldwin to
write about her life experiences. Her efforts resulted in the enormously successful 1969 memoir
about her childhood and young adult years, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made literary
history as the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. The poignant work also
made Angelou an international star.
Since publishing Caged Bird, Angelou continued to break new groundnot just artistically, but
educationally and socially. She wrote the drama Georgia, Georgia in 1972becoming the first
African-American woman to have her screenplay producedand went on to earn a Tony Award
nomination for her role in the play Look Away (1973) and an Emmy Award nomination for her work on
the television miniseries Roots (1977), among other honors.

Later Successes
Angelou wrote several autobiographies throughout her career, including All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986) and A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002), but
1969's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings continues to be regarded as her most popular autobiographical work. She also published several collections of poetry, including
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.One of Angelou's most famous works is the poem "On the Pulse of
Morning," which she wrote especially for and recited at President Bill Clinton's inaugural ceremony in January 1993marking the first inaugural recitation since 1961,
when Robert Frost delivered his poem "The Gift Outright" at President John F. Kennedy's inauguration. Angelou went on to win a Grammy Award (best spoken word
album) for the audio version of the poem.In 1995, Angelou was lauded for remaining on The New York Times' paperback nonfiction best-seller list for two yearsthe
longest-running record in the chart's history.Seeking new creative challenges, Angelou made her directorial debut in 1998 with Down in the Delta, starring Alfre Woodard.
She also wrote a number of inspirational works, from the essay collection Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1994) to her advice for young women in Letter to
My Daughter (2008). Interested in health, Angelou has even published cookbooks, including Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories With Recipes (2005)
and Great Food, All Day Long (2010).Angelou's career has seen numerous accolades, including the Chicago International Film Festival's 1998 Audience Choice Award
and a nod from the Acapulco Black Film Festival in 1999 for Down in the Delta; and two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, for
her 2005 cookbook and 2008's Letter to My Daughter.\

Personal Life

Martin Luther King Jr., a close friend of Angelou's, was assassinated on her birthday (April 4) in 1968. Angelou stopped celebrating her birthday for years afterward, and
sent flowers to King's widow, Coretta Scott King, for more than 30 years, until Coretta's death in 2006

Vassar Miller (July 19, 1924 October 31, 1998) was a

writer and poet.
Miller was born in Houston, Texas, the daughter of real estate investor Jesse G. Miller. She began
writing as a child, composing on a typewriter due to the cerebral palsy which affected her speech
and movement. She attended the University of Houston, receiving her B.A. and M.A. in English.
In 1956, Miller published her first volume of poetry, Adam's Footprint. Her poems, most of which
dealt with either her strong religious faith or her experiences as a person with a disability, were
widely praised for their rigorous formality, clarity, and emotional impact. In 1961 Miller was
nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her collection Wage War on Silence. Her poems have been
published in hundreds of periodicals and more than 50 anthologies, including Spanish translations in
Latin American journals. The lasting power of Ms. Millers poetry and its distinctiveness was aptly
described by many, including author Larry McMurtry. Reflecting on the qualities that make the work
of only a few artists survive, Mr. McMurtry wrote of Vassar Miller and her poetry: Its easy to point
out her clarity, her precision, her intelligence, her honesty. But I want to mention one other quality
that I think she has both as a person and as a poet, and that is her tenacity. Its not simply brute
survival that a poet is involved with, although sometimes they are; its more than that. Its a tenacity

that has to be at one and the same time, physical, intellectual, and moral. I believe this tenacity is
something that Vassar Miller is richly endowed with.
Over the course of a literary career which spanned almost forty years, Miller published ten volumes
of poetry in all. Vassar Millers ten volumes of poetry, published between 1956 and 1984 were
collected in 1991 under the title If I Had Wheels or Love. An outspoken advocate for the rights and
dignity of the handicapped, Miller also edited a collection of poetry and short stories about persons
with disabilities titled Despite This Flesh. Miller received many awards and accolades for her poetry in
her home state. Three of her books won the annual poetry prize of the Texas Institute of Letters. In
1982 and 1988 Miller was named Poet Laureate of Texas, and in 1997 she was named to the Texas
Women's Hall of Fame by the Governor's Commission for Women.
In addition to her writing and teaching, Ms. Miller was involved in civic work and in 1989 the Young
Womens Christian Association named her an Outstanding Woman of Houston. Born in Houston on
July 19, 1924, her achievements as a poet became all the more remarkable given that she was born
a victim of cerebral palsy. Ms. Miller was not only a poet of extraordinary talent, she was a woman
whose indomitable spirit enabled her to overcome her significant physical limitations. Vassar Miller
died October 31, 1998.

Kathleen Mansfield Murry (14 October 1888 9 January 1923)

was a prominent New Zealand modernist short story writer who was born and brought up in colonial
New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. At 19, Mansfield left New
Zealand and settled in the United Kingdom, where she became a friend of modernist writers such as
D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. In 1917 she was diagnosed with extrapulmonary tuberculosis,
which led to her death at the age of 34.
Early life[edit]
Mansfield was born Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp in 1888 into a socially prominent family in
Wellington, New Zealand. Her father was a banker and she was a cousin of the author Countess
Elizabeth von Arnim. She had two older sisters, a younger sister and a younger brother, born in 1894.
[1] Her father, Harold Beauchamp, became the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand and was
knighted.[2][3] Her grandfather was Arthur Beauchamp, who briefly represented the Picton
electorate in Parliament.[3][4] In 1893 the Mansfield family moved from Thorndon to Karori, where
Mansfield spent the happiest years of her childhood. She used some of her memories of this time as
an inspiration for the "Prelude" story.[2]
Katherine Mansfield Birthplace in Thorndon, Wellington
Her first published stories appeared in the High School Reporter and the Wellington Girls' High School
magazine (the family returned to Wellington proper in 1898),[2] in 1898 and 1899.[5] In 1902 she
became enamoured of a cellist, Arnold Trowell, although the feelings were largely unreciprocated.[6]
Mansfield herself was an accomplished cellist, having received lessons from Trowell's father.[2]
Mansfield wrote in her journals of feeling alienated in New Zealand, and of how she had become
disillusioned because of the repression of the Mori people. Mori characters are often portrayed in a
sympathetic or positive light in her later stories, such as "How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped".[1]
In 1903 she moved to London, where she attended Queen's College along with her sisters. Mansfield
recommenced playing the cello, an occupation that she believed she would take up professionally,[6]
but she also began contributing to the college newspaper with such dedication that she eventually
became its editor.[1][5] She was particularly interested in the works of the French Symbolists and

Oscar Wilde,[1] and she was appreciated among her peers for her vivacious and charismatic
approach to life and work.[5] She met fellow writer Ida Baker (also known as Lesley Moore),[1] a
South African, at the college, and they became lifelong friends.[2] Mansfield did not become involved
in much political activity when she lived in London. For example, she did not actively support the
suffragette movement in the UK (women in New Zealand had gained the right to vote in 1893).[1]
Mansfield travelled in continental Europe between 1903 and 1906, staying mainly in Belgium and
Germany. After finishing her schooling in England, she returned to New Zealand in 1906, and only
then began to write short stories. She had several works published in the Native Companion
(Australia), her first paid writing work, and by this time she had her heart set on becoming a
professional writer.[5] It was also the first occasion on which she used the pseudonym "K. Mansfield".
[6] She rapidly wearied of the provincial New Zealand lifestyle and of her family, and two years later
headed again for London.[1] Her father sent her an annual allowance of 100 pounds for the rest of
her life.[2] In later years she expressed both admiration and disdain for New Zealand in her journals,
but she was never able to return there because of her tuberculosis.[1]
Mansfield had two romantic relationships with women that are notable for their pre-eminence in her
journal entries. She continued to have male lovers, and attempted to repress her feelings at certain
times.[citation needed] Her first same-gender romantic relationship was with Maata Mahupuku
(sometimes known as Martha Grace), a wealthy young Mori woman whom she had first met at Miss
Swainson's school in Wellington, and then again in London in 1906. In June 1907 she wrote: "I want
MaataI want her as I have had herterribly. This is unclean I know but true." She often referred to
Maata as Carlotta. She wrote about Maata in several short stories. Maata married in 1907 but it is
claimed that she sent money to Mansfield in London.[7] The second relationship, with Edith Kathleen
Bendall, took place from 1906 to 1908. Mansfield also professed her adoration for her in her journals.
[8]
Return to London[edit]
Back in London in 1908, Mansfield quickly fell into a bohemian way of life. She published only one
story and one poem during her first 15 months there.[5] Mansfield sought out the Trowell family for
companionship, and while Arnold was involved with another woman Mansfield embarked on a
passionate affair with his brother, Garnet.[6] By early 1909 she had become pregnant by Garnet,
though Trowell's parents disapproved of the relationship and the two broke up. She hastily entered
into a marriage with George Bowden, a singing teacher 11 years older than she;[9] they were
married on 2 March, but she left him the same evening, before the marriage could be consummated.
[6] After a brief reunion with Garnet, Mansfield's mother, Annie Beauchamp, arrived in 1909. She
blamed the breakdown of the marriage to Bowden on a lesbian relationship between Mansfield and
Baker, and she quickly had her daughter despatched to the spa town of Bad Wrishofen in Bavaria,
Germany. Mansfield miscarried after attempting to lift a suitcase on top of a cupboard. It is not known
whether her mother knew of this miscarriage when she left shortly after arriving in Germany, but she
cut Mansfield out of her will.[6]
Mansfield's time in Bavaria had a significant effect on her literary outlook. In particular, she was
introduced to the works of Anton Chekhov. She returned to London in January 1910. She then
published more than a dozen articles in A.R. Orage's socialist magazine The New Age, and became a
friend and lover of Beatrice Hastings, who lived with Orage.[10] Her experiences of Germany formed
the foundation of her first published collection, In a German Pension,[6] (1911), which she later
described as "immature".[5]
Meeting Murry[edit]

Soon afterwards Mansfield submitted a lightweight story to a new avant-garde magazine called
Rhythm. The piece was rejected by the magazine's editor, John Middleton Murry, who requested
something darker. Mansfield responded with "The Woman at the Store", a tale of murder and mental
illness.[1] Mansfield was inspired at this time by Fauvism.[1][6]
1912
In 1911 Mansfield and Murry began a relationship that culminated in their marriage in 1918, although
she left him twice, in 1911 and 1913.[11]
In October 1912 the publisher of Rhythm, Charles Granville (sometimes known as Stephen Swift),
absconded to Europe and left Murry responsible for the debts the magazine had accumulated.
Mansfield pledged her father's allowance towards the magazine, but it was discontinued, being
reorganised as The Blue Review in 1913 and folding after three issues.[6] Mansfield and Murry were
persuaded by their friend Gilbert Cannan to rent a cottage next to his windmill in Cholesbury,
Buckinghamshire in 1913, in an attempt to alleviate Mansfield's ill health.[12] In January 1914 the
couple moved to Paris, in the hope that a change of setting would make writing easier for both of
them. Mansfield wrote only one story during her time there ("Something Childish But Very Natural")
before Murry was recalled to London to declare bankruptcy.[6]
In 1914 Mansfield had a brief affair with the French writer Francis Carco. Her visit to him in Paris in
February 1915[6] is retold in one of her short stories, "An Indiscreet Journey".[1]
Mansfield's life and work were changed by the death in 1915 of her beloved younger brother, Leslie
Heron "Chummie" Beauchamp,[13] as a New Zealand soldier in France. She began to take refuge in
nostalgic reminiscences of their childhood in New Zealand.[14] In a poem describing a dream she
had shortly after his death, she wrote
By the remembered stream my brother stands
Waiting for me with berries in his hands...
"These are my body. Sister, take and eat."[1]
At the beginning of 1917 Mansfield and Murry separated,[1] although he continued to visit her at her
new apartment.[6] Baker, whom Mansfield often called, with a mixture of affection and disdain, her
"wife", moved in with her shortly afterwards.[9] Mansfield entered into her most prolific period of
writing after 1916, which began with several stories, including "Mr Reginald Peacock's Day" and "A
Dill Pickle", being published in The New Age. Woolf and her husband, Leonard, who had recently set
up Hogarth Press, approached her for a story, and Mansfield presented "Prelude", which she had
begun writing in 1915 as "The Aloe". The story depicts a family of New Zealanders moving house.
In December 1917 Mansfield was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Rejecting the idea of staying in a
sanatorium on the grounds that it would cut her off from writing,[5] she moved abroad to avoid the
English winter.[6] She stayed at a half-deserted and cold hotel in Bandol, France, where she became
depressed but continued to produce stories, including "Je ne parle pas franais". "Bliss", the story
that lent its name to her second collection of stories in 1920, was also published in 1918. Her health
continued to deteriorate and she had her first lung haemorrhage in March.[6]
By April Mansfield's divorce from Bowden had been finalised, and she and Murry married, only to part
again two weeks later.[6] They came together again, however, and in March 1919 Murry became
editor of Athenaeum, for which Mansfield wrote more than 100 book reviews, collected posthumously
as Novels and Novelists. During the winter of 191819 she and Baker stayed in a villa in San Remo,
Italy. Their relationship came under strain during this period, and after she wrote to Murry to express

her feelings of depression he stayed over Christmas.[6] Although her relationship with Murry became
increasingly distant after 1918[6] and the two often lived apart,[11] this intervention of his spurred
her on, and she wrote "The Man Without a Temperament", the story of an ill wife and her longsuffering husband. Mansfield followed her first collection of short stories, Bliss (1920), with another
collection The Garden Party, published in 1922.
Final years[edit]
Mansfield spent her last years seeking increasingly unorthodox cures for her tuberculosis. In February
1922 she consulted the Russian physician Ivan Manoukhin, whose "revolutionary" treatment, which
consisted of bombarding her spleen with X-rays, caused Mansfield to develop heat flashes and
numbness in her legs.
In October 1922 Mansfield moved to Georges Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of
Man in Fontainebleau, France, where she was put under the care of Olgivanna Lazovitch Hinzenburg
(who later married Frank Lloyd Wright). As a guest rather than a pupil of Gurdjieff, Mansfield was not
required to take part in the rigorous routine of the Institute,[15] but she spent much of her time there
with her mentor, Alfred Richard Orage and her last letters inform Murry of her attempts to apply
some of Gurdjieff's teachings to her own life.[16]
Mansfield suffered a fatal pulmonary haemorrhage in January 1923, after running up a flight of stairs.
[17] She died on 9 January and was buried in a cemetery in Avon.
Mansfield was a prolific writer in the final years of her life. Much of her work remained unpublished at
her death, and Murry took on the task of editing and publishing it in two additional volumes of short
stories (The Dove's Nest in 1923 and Something Childish in 1924), a volume of Poems, The Aloe,
Novels and Novelists, and collections of her letters and journals.

Legacy
The following high schools in New Zealand have a house named after her: Rangitoto College,
Westlake Girls' High School, Macleans College all in Auckland, Tauranga Girls' College in Tauranga,
Wellington Girls' College in Wellington, Rangiora High School in North Canterbury and Southland Girls'
High School in Invercargill. She has been honoured at Karori Normal School in Wellington which has a
stone monument dedicated to her with a plaque commemorating her work and her time at the
school. She has also been recognised at Samuel Marsden Collegiate School (previously Fitzherbert
Tce School) with a painting and award in her name. There is a Park dedicated to her in Thorndon,
Wellington.
A street in Menton, France, where she lived and wrote, is named after her and a Fellowship is offered
annually to enable a New Zealand writer to work at her former home, the Villa Isola Bella. New
Zealand's pre-eminent short story competition is also named in her honour.
She was the subject of the 1973 BBC miniseries A Picture of Katherine Mansfield starring Vanessa
Redgrave. The six-part series included adaptations of Mansfield's life and of her short stories. In
2011, a biopic film titled "Bliss", was made of her early beginnings as a writer in New Zealand, played
by Kate Elliott and featured on the TVNZ TV-movie series "Sunday Theatre" that aired on 28 August
2011.[18]

James Thurber
Biography

James Grover Thurber was an American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright, and celebrated wit.
Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in The New Yorker magazine
and collected in his numerous books. Wikipedia
Born: December 8, 1894, Columbus, Ohio, United States
Died: November 2, 1961, New York City, New York, United States
Spouse: Helen Wismer Thurber (m. 19351961), Althea Adams Thurber (m. 19221935)
Children: Rosemary Thurber
Awards: Special Tony Award
James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, author,
journalist, playwright, and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories,
published mainly in The New Yorker magazine and collected in his numerous books. One of the most
popular humorists of his time, Thurber celebrated the comic frustrations and eccentricities of
ordinary people. In collaboration with his college friend, Elliott Nugent, he wrote the Broadway
comedy, The Male Animal, later adapted into a film, which starred Henry Fonda and Olivia de
Havilland
James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, author,
journalist, playwright, and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short stories,
published mainly in The New Yorker magazine and collected in his numerous books. One of the most
popular humorists of his time, Thurber celebrated the comic frustrations and eccentricities of
ordinary people. In collaboration with his college friend, Elliott Nugent, he wrote the Broadway
comedy, The Male Animal, later adapted into a film, which starred Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havil

Confucius
(/knfjus/, /kn-/; September 28, 551 479 BC)[1][2] was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and
philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history.
The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social
relationships, justice and sincerity. His followers competed successfully with many other schools
during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the
Qin Dynasty. Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts
received official sanction and were further developed into a system known as Confucianism.
Confucius is traditionally credited with having authored or edited many of the Chinese classic texts
including all of the Five Classics, but modern scholars are cautious of attributing specific assertions to
Confucius himself. Aphorisms concerning his teachings were compiled in the Analects, but only many
years after his death.
Confucius's principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He championed strong
family loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives.

He also recommended family as a basis for ideal government. He espoused the well-known principle
"Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself", the Golden Rule.
A portrait of Confucius by the Tang dynasty artist Wu Daozi (680740)

Born

Died

September 28, 551 BC

Zou, Lu state
479 BC (aged 7172)
Lu state

Nationality

Lu state, Zhou China

Era

Ancient philosophy

Region

Chinese philosophy

School

Founder of Confucianism

Main interests

Moral philosophy, social philosophy, ethics

Notable ideas

Confucianism

Born

Died
Occupatio
n
Notable

Robert Lee
Frost
March 26, 1874
San Francisco, California, US
January 29, 1963 (aged 88)
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Poet, playwright
A Boy's Will, North of Boston[1]

works
Notable
awards
Spouse
Children

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry,

Congressional Gold Medal,
Elinor Miriam White (18951938)
Elliot (18961904)
Lesley (18991983)
Carol (190240)
Irma (190367)
Marjorie (190534)
Elinor Bettina (1907

Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 January 29,

1963)
was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America.
He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial
speech.[2] His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early
twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. One of the most
popular and critically respected American poets of the twentieth century,[3] Frost was honored
frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He became one of America's
rare "public literary figures, almost an artistic institution."[3] He was awarded the Congressional Gold
Medal in 1960 for his poetical works. On July 22, 1961, Frost was named Poet laureate of Vermont.
Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California, to journalist William Prescott Frost, Jr., and Isabelle
Moodie.[2] His mother was a Scottish immigrant, and his father descended from Nicholas Frost of
Tiverton, Devon, England, who had sailed to New Hampshire in 1634 on the Wolfrana.
Frost's father was a teacher and later an editor of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin (which later
merged with The San Francisco Examiner), and an unsuccessful candidate for city tax collector. After
his death on May 5, 1885, the family moved across the country to Lawrence, Massachusetts, under
the patronage of (Robert's grandfather) William Frost, Sr., who was an overseer at a New England
mill. Frost graduated from Lawrence High School in 1892.[4] Frost's mother joined the Swedenborgian
church and had him baptized in it, but he left it as an adult.
Although known for his later association with rural life, Frost grew up in the city, and he published his
first poem in his high school's magazine. He attended Dartmouth College for two months, long
enough to be accepted into the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. Frost returned home to teach and to work
at various jobs, including helping his mother teach her class of unruly boys, delivering newspapers,
and working in a factory maintaining carbon arc lamps. He did not enjoy these jobs, feeling his true
calling was poetry.

Nina Cassian
Thursday 10 October 2002
Nina Cassian went to the United States as a visiting professor in 1985, determined to
return to Romania despite the difficult situation there. In her own words: 'A poet never

leaves his country, his native soil, his language, of his own free will.' However, when the
Romanian secret service, the Securitate, arrested a friend of hers for keeping a diary
which also included satirical poems by Nina Cassian, she knew she could not go back.
If she was to go on writing poetry, she would have to learn to write in a foreign language, even
though she was over sixty. After her forced emigration she was banned from Romania's literary
annals until the collapse of the Ceausescu dictatorship.
Nina Cassian (born Rene Annie Cassian, Stefanescu by marriage) is an artist of remarkable
versatility. Apart from writing poetry she has written children's books and made her name as a
translator. She also studied painting and composed music. Due to the political conditions in her
country her career as a poet has not been an easy one. After the publication in 1947 of her rather
surrealistic dbut collection La Scara 1/1 (Scale 1:1) she came under attack for writing poetry that
went against the spirit of Soviet-dominated Romania. Under pressure from the authorities she wrote
agitprop poetry for several years, but gradually returned to her true calling. She published a series of
poetry collections which brought her to the forefront of Romanian literature. After being granted
political asylum in the United States she begun publishing poems in translation, including some of
her own, and in 1998 produced her first collection of poems written directly in English, TAKE MY
WORD FOR IT, the latest addition to an oeuvre comprising more than fifty books.