All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, published in 1986, is the fifth
book in African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou's seven-volume
autobiography series. Set between 1962 and 1965 and taking its title
from a Negro spiritual, the book begins when Angelou is thirty-three
years old, and recounts her time in Accra, Ghana. It starts where her
previous book, The Heart of a Woman, ends, with the traumatic car
accident involving her son Guy, and ends as she returns to America.
Angelou (pictured in 2013) upholds the long tradition of African-
American autobiography, and at the same time makes a deliberate attempt
to challenge the usual structure of the autobiography by critiquing,
changing, and expanding the genre. As in her previous books, it consists
of a series of anecdotes connected by theme. She depicts her struggle
with being the mother of a grown son, and with her place in her new
home. Angelou examines many of the same subjects and themes of her
previous autobiographies, including motherhood, the parallels and
connections between the African and American parts of her history and
character, and racism.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_God%27s_Children_Need_Traveling_Shoes>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
414:
Aelia Pulcheria proclaimed herself regent over her brother
Theodosius II and made herself Augusta and Empress of the Eastern Roman
Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulcheria>
1776:
In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the
Declaration of Independence, announcing that the thirteen American
colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence>
1862:
In a rowing boat on the River Thames from Oxford to Godstow,
author Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that
would eventually form the basis for his book Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland>
1943:
The aircraft carrying Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of
the Polish government-in-exile, crashed, killing him and fifteen others,
leading to several conspiracy theories.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Sikorski%27s_death_controversy>
2012:
CERN announced the discovery of the Higgs boson elementary
particle after a 40-year search for its existence.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_for_the_Higgs_boson>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
auteur:
A creative artist, especially a film director, seen as having a
specific, recognisable artistic vision, and who is seen as the single or
preeminent ‘author’ of their works.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/auteur>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
   Thou warden of the western gate, above Manhattan
Bay, The fogs of doubt that hid thy face are driven clean away: Thine
eyes at last look far and clear, thou liftest high thy hand To spread
the light of liberty world-wide for every land. ... Oh, come as comes
the morn. Serene and strong and full of faith, America, arise, With
steady hope and mighty help to join thy brave Allies. O dearest country
of my heart, home of the high desire, Make clean thy soul for sacrifice
on Freedom’s altar-fire: For thou must suffer, thou must fight, until
the warlords cease, And all the peoples lift their heads in liberty and
peace.
--Henry van Dyke
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_van_Dyke>