27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If the planet Earth could sing, February 21, 2005
This review is from: The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights (Hardcover)
Writing a biography of a private person who led a public life is, by definition, difficult. So it only stands to reason that writing a children's biography of a private person who led a public life would be ten times as hard. Children's biographies cannot speculate over the sex life of the subject. They can't delve into shoddy rumors or dredge up conspiracy theories related to the person's sordid background. None of this is to say that Marian Anderson had such sketchy rumors floating about her person, of course. By all accounts she led an exciting life, had a fabulous career, and is regarded as a great American hero. But she was also a private person, which places Russell Freedman in a difficult position. As the author of, "The Voice That Challenged a Nation", Freedman's job is to tell Anderson's story while relying on as many good, strong, clean facts as he can get his hands on. Fortunately, we're talking about the premiere biographical children's author here. Alongside fellow genius James Giblin, Freedman knows exactly how to present a life this interesting and detailed. The book will not charm every child assigned it in school. But if you've a kid who's open-minded and able to get into Marian's struggle, this is an excellent resource. Even if, prior to this book, they couldn't tell Marian Anderson from Ella Fitzgerald.
The book opens with what is inarguably Anderson's greatest moment in the public eye. She stands on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with a crowd of 75,000 people below her, waiting to hear her sing. The date is April 9, 1939, and Anderson has been refused the chance to perform at Constitution Hall. Anderson is black and the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) is inherently racist. With this concert, under the shadow of Lincoln himself, Anderson gives a heckuva performance that stands as a dignified response to racism in America. It goes very well and from here we shoot back and see Ms. Anderson's life in full. From her early days as a choir member in Philadelphia to her triumphant European tour in the early 30s. Certain aspects of Marian's life repeat themselves. She was wholly dedicated to her mother and took her everywhere. She was uncertain of her own talents at times but continued to sing and conquer. Freedman expertly weaves fascinating aspects of Marian's life (example: her high school boyfriend waited some twenty years to marry her) with factual information about the times in which she lived. Kids who read this book learn just as much about Jim Crow laws and deeply imbedded segregation as they do about Ms. Anderson's life. By the end of the book you find yourself emerging with a fascinating look at a truly great woman.
Freedman follows up this book with an extensive bibliography (which gives props to fellow fabulous child biography, "When Marian Sang" by Pam Munoz Ryan). There's also a discography, a series of picture credits, and a wonderful index. It seems petty to demand that an author (or publisher) bend even farther backwards after producing such a gorgeous book, but I was a teensy bit sad that "The Voice That Challenged a Nation" didn't have a small cd accompanying it. When you read a quote, like the one from opera and concert singer Jessye Norman saying that, "If the planet Earth could sing, I think it would sound like Marian Anderson", you want to hear that voice. Not just read about it. But as I said, them's small potatoes. As it is, this may be one of those few children's books that inspire kids to search for Marian Anderson recordings on itunes (which has a lovely selection, by the way).
With some authors, you know to trust them. You pick up their latest work without a smidgen of doubt in your mind that what you're about to peruse is going to impress you. After Freedman won my respect with his glorious, "Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery" (Eleanor shows up quite a lot in this book as well, I'm pleased to report), I expected nothing but the best from his Marian Anderson bio. And the best it is. A fine selection for any library, whether personal or public, anywhere.
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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Richie's Picks: THE VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION, October 28, 2004
This review is from: The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights (Hardcover)
"This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, 'My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.'
"And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
"Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
"Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
"But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
"Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
"Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring..."
--Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963
Dr. King must surely have had a thought or two of Marian Anderson as he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on that historic afternoon and delivered those words.
Many of us know Marian's basic story:
Marian Anderson was a helluva singer.
Despite being celebrated in Europe as the voice of a century, and despite having the strong support of the President's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, Marian Anderson was denied the opportunity to perform in Constitution Hall in Washington, DC because it was owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and those ladies didn't allow no black folks to be singing in their hall. That refusal led to Marian performing instead from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for a crowd of 75,000 people on the Mall and a nationwide radio audience.
She stood up tall where Martin would stand a quarter-century later and led off her performance with a rendition of My County 'Tis of Thee.
Her performance is seen as a historic event at the dawn of the modern Civil Rights movement.
Two years ago, Pam Munoz Ryan and Brian Selznick created the stunningly beautiful 40 page picture book, WHEN MARIAN SANG (Scholastic Press, 2002), which won all sorts of awards including a Sibert Honor.
Now Russell Freedman has written a beautiful and more detailed biography of Marian Anderson which will similarly captivate readers with its engaging text and its clear, oversized photographs of the singer herself and of supporting characters in the story of Marian Anderson.
The most precious of those supporters were also some of the earliest. Through the chapters focusing on her earliest years, I was moved by Freedman's portrayal of how Marian's childhood community came through time and time again to insure that her dreams would not be in vain:
"Again there was no money for lessons. Most of Marian's earnings from concert appearances went to her mother, who was still taking in laundry and scrubbing floors, and to her sisters, who were still in school. And again the congregation at Union Baptist Church came to Marian's aid, organizing a benefit concert that raised $566 so that she could study with Boghetti."
Equally moving is the subplot of her life that involves Orpheus Fisher:
"I don't wanna wait in vain for your love" --Bob Marley
Having had to quit school after eighth grade in the wake of her father's death, Marian did not complete high school until she was twenty-four. It was during her delayed high school years--back when America was engaged in the First World War--that Marian met Orpheus Fisher who, "like her, was still in high school. He fell for the shy singer with the soft laughter and huge sparkling eyes who was almost as tall as he..."
Decades later, America was midway through the Second World War when Marian finally relented and married Orpheus, who has tirelessly and faithfully pursued her all those years, while she was single-mindedly focused on her career.
And what a career it was:
"During one ten-month period she gave 123 concerts in fifteen different countries, performing a repertoire that included over two hundred songs and arias in German, Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, and other languages."
It must have been amazingly disheartening for Marian Anderson to return home from entertaining European royalty and once again come face to face with Jim Crow. Like black sports stars of that era, Marian faced dangerous and humiliating conditions when traveling and performing around some regions of our "sweet land of liberty." And yet, in photos, she appears both to have left that all behind and to be channeling some kind of higher power as she sings.
" 'It was music-making that probed too deep for words.' "
Marian Anderson remains a symbol of the historic fight to let freedom ring for all Americans. In VOICE THAT CHALLENGED A NATION, Russell Freedman goes far beyond the symbolic to provide us a memorable look at the life of a singer whose talents knew no bounds.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Young adult nonfiction, December 5, 2008
This review is from: The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights (Hardcover)
Award winning author Russell Freedman published this biography of African American vocalist Marian Anderson in 2004. I selected it as background to the novel that I'm working on and was not disappointed.
Anderson was born in 1897 and grew up in the ethnic neighborhoods of south Philadelphia. Her mother was widowed when she and her two sisters were young; her father was injured in an accident at the Reading Terminal Market where he worked as a front loader. (On a personal note, my German grandmother would take me and my brother and sister to the market once a year to buy delicacies from home. I can still remember the crammed rows of stands that sold sausages, chocolates, breads, and cheeses.) Her church recognized her talents as a contralto when she was only 8 years old and helped raise the money that she needed for lessons. Her instructors included Guiseppe Boghetti who was moved to tears after hearing her sing, "Deep River."
In the 1920's Anderson began touring the country singing at black churches and colleges. She received a boost in her career when she beat 300 rivals and won the prestigious the Lewisohn Stadium competition in 1925. But her performances in the United States were mostly to fellow African Americans; and she knew that her career would never advance unless she had a wider audience. She decided to go to Europe to study Italian and German so that she could be better equipped to sing operas. During the 1930's Anderson was enthusiastically received by heads of state and famous composers in Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, and Russia. Arturo Toscanini, a very well-known conductor, heard her sing and said, "Yours is a voice such as one hears once in a hundred years."
But when Anderson returned home racism and prejudice still haunted her. She frequently received third or fourth class hotel and travel accommodations and even into the mid 1950's was blocked from walking unto a "Whites only" train platform in the Deep South. The pinnacle of her fight against racism occurred in 1939 when her manager wanted to arrange for a concert at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. The hall was operated by the DAR (Daughters of the American Republic) who had initiated a "white artists only" policy in 1935. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned her DAR membership and public outrage followed this act of outright racism. As a result, Anderson performed for 75,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial: establishing the Memorial as the "moral high ground" for protest rights. You can view a short video of this event at: [...] . From that website you will find links to other historical videos, including her reminiscing about her hero, Roland Hayes .
Although Anderson did not begin her singing career in order to combat racial injustice, she tenaciously conquered many racial barriers. In recollecting the 1939 concert she said: "I said yes, but the yes did not come easily or quickly. I don't like a lot of show, and one could not tell in advance what direction the affair would take. I studied my conscience. .... As I thought further, I could see that my significance as an individual was small in this affair. I had become, whether I like it or not, a symbol, representing my people."
When I listened to this book on CD, I wished an audio clip of her singing had been included. Middle school and high school students will appreciate reading this book and teachers should consider using it as a resource for Black History Month. I. Go to [...] for more details about Marian Anderson and her contribution to American history.
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