This is the first biography of Audre Lorde, the iconic lesbian feminist poet who died of breast cancer in 1992. De Veaux, chair of the Women’s Studies Department at the University of Buffalo (SUNY) has written a thorough and engaging account of Lorde’s development as a theorist and poet, divided into two parts, before and after her diagnosis with breast cancer in 1977. Describing her decision to end the biography on Lorde’s move to St Croix six years before her death, De Vreaux sums up her life as a quest for a spiritual homeland. My major problem with this book is that its political agenda, with its emphasis on race and gender issues, eclipses the other elements; most regrettably character description. Family, friends, fellow students and activists are all described in terms of their effect on Lordes’ growing awareness of her racial, gender and sexual identity and self-identification, but otherwise have little presence. A great set text for a course on the history of contemporary black American feminist theory – but not an entirely successful biography.

Lorde's life had many similarities to Neruda's. She, too, came from a family full of secrets that included half-siblings she didn't know about until late in life; her relationships--with both men and women--were marked by loyalty rather than fidelity; and she, too, suffered from disappointment in the political arena, most notably from the persistence of racism in the women's movement.

De Veaux divides the book into two sections: life before Lorde was diagnosed with the cancer that eventually killed her, and life after. It suffers slightly from an overly academic style--although the notes are extremely useful, there's information in them that would serve readers better if it were fully developed in the text. De Veaux makes clear that, although many may remember Lorde primarily as a political activist and feminist theorist--the author of the groundbreaking essay "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House," among others--her identity as a poet took priority. While De Veaux addresses the poems' development, this is not necessarily a literary biography; however, access to Lorde's papers and to interviews with close friends and family members certainly opens up her life in detail.

These are well-written and exhaustive examinations of remarkable lives, perhaps most useful for their revelation that art and politics are not strange bedfellows at all.

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