In Her Own Words: Women's Memoirs from Australia New Zealand Canada and the United States

Jill Ker Conway author of one of the most celebrated memoirs of recent decades is also the premier anthologist of womens autobiographical writing. In Her Own Words is Conways distillation of womens experience from the British Commonwealth world she came from compared with major themes in womens lives in the United States which is now her home.. In this dazzling collection we meet twelve remarkable women—from Shirley Chisholm the West Indian-raised girl who became the first black woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress to Janet Frame the brilliant New Zealand writer who overcame involuntary treatment in a mental institution to write one of the archetypal analyses of the postcolonial experience. We learn how the world of politics and the private self intersect in the four offshoots of the old British world and see how these women have made a difference—by their honesty by the scale of their struggle for self-knowledge and autonomy and by the power of their writing.. Includes writing from:.          Patricia Adam-Smith        Lillian Hellman          Rosemary Brown             Dorothy Hewett          Kim Chernin                    Robin Hyde          Shirley Chisholm              Dorothy Livesay          Lauris Edmond                Sally Morgan          Janet Frame                    Gabrielle Roy