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Article: Beverly Lowry's speculative "nonfiction": the white author of a new Madam Walker biography is lauded by the mainstream as if Walker's award-winning black chroniclers never existed. But Lowry also acknowledges mistakes in her Walker text to BIBR and vows to fix some of them in the paperback edition.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Black Issues Book Review
- Article date:
- September 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Cox, Matthews & Associates. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When Her Dream of Dreams: The Rise and Triumph of Madam C.J. Walker by Beverly Lowry was published in April (Knopf, $27.50, ISBN 0-679-44642-7), it was billed as "a comprehensive biography ... of America's first black woman millionaire." Well, at least the book is hefty--481 pages that include 38 pages of endnotes, bibliography and index. But readers expecting a new perspective on Sarah Breedlove, the daughter of slaves who rose from a shanty in Louisiana to become the legendary hair-care entrepreneur and philanthropist, are likely to be disappointed, even horrified.
Lowry, the author of six novels and two nonfiction books, as well as director of the creative ...