Publisher's Synopsis
This anthology draws upon autobiographies, journals and memoirs to celebrate women's lives in the 20th century. The reader is invited to savour the variety of women's experiences through the work of writers from Woolf, McCarthy and De Beauvoir to Isak Dinsen, Jill Conway, Maya Angelou, Annie Dillard and Joan Didion. The worlds of a traditional midwife, a South African labour organizer and an aviation pioneer are encountered. Women relate how they share in losses caused by war (Marguerite Duras), the challenges of poverty (Carolina Maria de Jesus), and the joys and torments of life from childhood to old age.
