Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey Summary

Allan Keiler’s book Marian Anderson: A Singer’s Journey examines the life and career of African American singer Marian Anderson. Keiler’s book starts with Mrs. Anderson’s childhood in South Philadelphia, detailing how Anderson’s musical career grew despite the struggles of racism found within the United States during the early 20th century. As the book continues, Anderson’s success in Europe, with her friend William “Billy” King, throughout the late 1930’s is elaborated on and leads into the examination of the height of Mrs. Anderson’s career.
In Mrs. Anderson’s career, the most known performance was at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday in 1939, Keiler talks in depth about the causes of this performance. Keiler explains how the Daughters

Some of the interviews being with Mrs. Anderson’s family and friend, as well as with Mrs. Anderson herself. At the beginning of the book, in Keiler’s acknowledgements, he mentions meeting with Mrs. Anderson twice and meeting with her nephew James “Jimmy” DePreist multiple times. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn about not only an amazing singer, but also a woman who has touched the lives of

I felt confident in using this book as a common source for my own research projects, and it created a wonderful starting point for every blog post I wanted to make. I ended up enjoyed this book not only because of the exquisite research, but because it shed light on a historical woman who is often over look in general history courses, yet who was such an amazing woman that she inspired millions with her voice at a time when African Americans were looked down upon as a lesser being of