Written in 1953 but never published in Britain, Maud Martha is a poetic collage of happenings that forms an extraordinary portrait of an ordinary life: one lived with wisdom, humour, protest, rage, dignity, and joy. And the 'scraps of baffled hate' - a certain word from a saleswoman that visit to the cinema the cruelty of a department store Santa Claus - are always there. But her lighter-skinned husband has dreams too: of the Foxy Cats Club, other women, war. She admires dandelions, learns to drink coffee, falls in love, decorates her kitchenette, visits the Jungly Hovel, guts a chicken, buys hats, gives birth. Amidst the crumbling taverns and overgrown yards, she dreams: of New York, romance, her future. Maud Martha Brown is a little girl growing up on the South Side of 1940s Chicago. What, what, am I to do with all of this life? Written in 1953 but never published in Britain, Maud Martha is a poetic collage of happenings that forms an extraordinary portrait of an ordinary life: one lived with wisdom, humour, protest, rage, dignity and joy.Introduced by Margo Jefferson, this forgotten novel by the Pulitzer-winning poet is a miniature wonder, chronicling one woman's coming-of-age in 1940s Chicago. And the 'scraps of baffled hate'-a certain word from a saleswoman, that visit to the cinema, the cruelty of a department store Santa Claus-are always there. But her lighter-skinned husband has dreams, too: of the Foxy Cats Club, other women, war. Introduced by Margo Jefferson, this is a miniature wonder of a novel by the celebrated poet and first Black author to win a Pulitzer Prize, published in Britain for the very first time.
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