Biography
Harrison was born in Mississippi during a time that was racially oppressive for an African-American female. The times were marked by racism, laborious jobs for minorities, and not many opportunities for success. Harrison did not receive much schooling, as told in the preface of her book. Her early years started with “an endless round of cooking, washing, and ironing in an overburdened household,” which was the norm for girls in her situation—young and African American (ix). Her school education ceased when she was about ten years old. There is not much known about her parents and family life other than what is presented in the preface to her autobiography.
Harrison’s physical appearance is also a mystery to the readers. She is spoken of by a former employer’s daughter as having “a slight form, fresh complexion, long hair braided about her head, made her appear younger than her years” (xi). This is the only description given about her looks. Harrison autographed a copy of her book and gave several personal photographs of herself to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Estes, on whose property in Hawaii she lived when she returned from her world travels.
Read more about this topic: Juanita Harrison
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“A biography is like a handshake down the years, that can become an arm-wrestle.”
—Richard Holmes (b. 1945)
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)