The history of centuries has been written mostly by men. But for centuries, women have been recording their lives every day. Lives coded into letters, in diaries, in stories told on porches or across kitchen tables. These stories, once passed down orally or tightly locked in diaries, now find permanent home in memoir. Subtly framing autobiography with storytelling, memoir at its best offers models of how to reimagine our lives.
Great memoirs are emblems of moral courage.
As the excerpts here suggest, whether it's overcoming challenges of poverty, racism, or isolation, memoir is often finally about redemption. We witness the resourcefulness of a life finding the creativity to tell its story. With the help of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, Keller not only overcame severe speech impairments, but mastered language to inspire generations of readers. When I had made speech my own, I could not wait to go home. At last the happiest of happy moments arrived.