-Lucille Clifton
In 1976, the poet Lucille Clifton published a memoir that traces her family history from its origins in the West African Kingdom of Dahomey (now the Republic of Benin), through enslavement in the antebellum United States and into the century following emancipation. (The book was edited by Toni Morrison at a time when the Nobel Laureate was still working as an editor for Random House.) At the beginning of each chapter, Clifton includes a brief excerpt from Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” thereby claiming a place for herself within the poetic tradition Whitman initiated while also signaling that the America Whitman celebrated was very different from the one that she and her family had experienced.
Lucille Clifton (1936- ).
good woman: poems and a memoir 1969 – 1980.
Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, Ltd., 1987.
Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/Record/11022577