page_title: Even the Stars Look Lonesome
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Even the Stars Look Lonesome / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
context_page_description: Even the Stars Look Lonesome is African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou's second book of essays, published during the long period between her fifth and sixth autobiographies, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes and A Song Flung Up to Heaven. Stars, like her first book of essays, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, has been called one of Angelou's "wisdom books". By the time it was published, Angelou was well-respected and popular as a writer and poet. She discusses a wide range of topics in the book's twenty short personal essays, including Africa, aging and the young's misconceptions of it, sex and sensuality, self-reflection, independence, and violence. Most of the essays are autobiographical and had previously appeared in other publications. One essay defends Angelou's support of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, and another one centers on her friend Oprah Winfrey.
  Stars was an immediate bestseller, prompting Random House to increase their first printing of 350,000 copies to 375,000, even before Angelou began her national book tour to promote it. Like her previous works, the book received generally positive reviews.
context_section_description: Even the Stars Look Lonesome is a collection 20 short personal essays, most of which are autobiographical.  All but one essay, "Those Who Really Know, Teach", previously appeared in other publications.  The book is dedicated to "the children who will come to maturity in the twenty-first century" and lists more than 35 of them she knew, charging them to "make this a perfect world".
  Angelou discusses a wide range of topics in Stars, including Africa, aging and the young's misconceptions of it, sex and sensuality, self-reflection, independence, and violence.  She explores her early career as a nightclub performer.  She writes about African art and "the importance of understanding both the historical truth of the African American experience and the art that truth inspired".  She salutes Black women, calling them "precious jewels all", and profiles her friend Oprah Winfrey, who she compares to "the desperate traveler who teaches us the most profound lesson and affords us the most exquisite skills".  Angelou defends her controversial support of Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court justice in one of her essays.  In her final essay in the book, Angelou uses the story of the prodigal son to emphasize the value of solitude: "In the silence we listen to ourselves.  Then we ask questions of ourselves.  We describe ourselves to ourselves, and we may even hear the voice of God."
caption: Angelou defends her controversial support of Clarence Thomas in Stars.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2848", "Image ImageLength": "4288", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D2Xs", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:09:25 11:41:27", "Image ExifOffset": "308", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "942", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4471", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:09:24 07:43:46", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:09:24 07:43:46", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "352741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "415241/62500", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "49/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Flash", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "112", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "90", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "90", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2400", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3300", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "168", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Soft", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Soft", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}