A Touch of Innocence: A Memoir of Childhood (Paperback)

by Katherine Dunham (Author) "She stood first on one foot then the other, leaning on the BB gun and gazing across the dreary field of winter corn which seemed,..." (more)
Key Phrases: tumbler room, dust wheel, pressing table, Annette Dunham, Albert Dunham, Bluff Street (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Long before terms like "multiculturalism" and "world music" came into vogue, dancer, choreographer, and University of Chicago-trained anthropologist Katherine Dunham traveled to Africa, the West Indies, and South America, chronicling the spread of Africa-derived dance traditions and creating a multitude of critically acclaimed revues, including Tropics and Le Jazz Hot. Her choreography was even featured in the 1943 film Stormy Weather. But Dunham's autobiography, written in the late 1950s while she was on a sojourn in Japan, is bittersweet. She was born on June 22, 1909, in Joliet, Illinois, the daughter of a West African-Malagasy father and a light-complexioned mother of French-Canadian-Native American heritage who died when Dunham was an infant. A Touch of Innocence chronicles the first 18 years of Dunham's life: her upbringing with her brother, Albert Jr., in the white suburb of Glen Ellyn; the antagonism of her domineering father; and the experience of being raised by aunts in Chicago while her dad worked as a traveling salesman. From this piercing work, the world-famous dance icon emerges with the all-embracing allure of the everyday aristocracy that the best African American achievers radiate. --Eugene Holley Jr.

From Library Journal
These titles represent an odd combination from a person who was equally unusual-she is both a noteworthy choreographer and an anthropologist. Innocence is Dunham's 1959 autobiography as well as, she says, "the story of a world that has vanished." Island (1969) is a "nostalgic, funny, scientific" anthropology title on Haiti (LJ 9/15/69). With that country making recent headlines for atrocities, this may be a portrait of another world now vanished.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (June 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226171124
• ISBN-13: 978-0226171128
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #747,396 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #3 in

  Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Dance > Choreographers & Dancers > Dunham, Katherine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully written!, November 30, 1997

By	[e-mail] (the University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont) - See all my reviews

I read A Touch of Innocence as research for a project on black dance in America and found myself lost in a different world. Dunham's autobiography of her early years is a work of art. Her descriptive prose reads like that of one who writes for a living instead of as a diverting side-line to the dance. This book should be on the nightstand of every person interested in great black literature.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Really?, October 14, 2008

By	H. Long (Bloomington, IN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is quite possibly the most boring book I've ever read, and it usually takes a lot to get me to lose interest. Honestly, I would not choose this as a potential leisure read.