Terry McMillan: The Unauthorized Biography
Novelist Terry McMillan is widely considered to be the preeminent voice of young professional African American women today. Her novels Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back became instant classics, touchstones for a culture that the mainstream media had often dismissed or ignored. The story of her own life is as compelling and inspiration as any of her novels. Born in Port Huron Michigan in 1951, McMillan was raised by her mother, her father having died when she was 16. Although staying in her small town would have been the easiest path, McMillan gambled on a brighter future. With only a dream and meager savings, she moved to California and began writing poetry and short fiction. Several years later she left for New York City, where she struggled as a single mother and office clerk until she finally found acceptance of her work. When her first novel, Mama (1987) received only minimal support from her publisher, she promoted it on her own. She found millions of fans, both black and white, and in the process changed the way the book industry sees Black America.
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The Unauthorized Biography is, at its heart, a love story. It's the story of a woman who falls in love with an author's work, and then sets out to learn everything she can about her idol. McMillan is that woman, and she has written a fascinating, often funny, and always honest account of her obsession with the author she calls “the black goddess of words.”
McMillan's obsession began with Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan's breakthrough novel about four African-American women searching for love and happiness. McMillan was instantly hooked, and she soon began devouring everything McMillan had ever written. But it wasn't just the writing that drew her in - it was the woman herself. McMillan wanted to know everything about her favorite author, from her childhood in Mississippi to her years struggling to make it as a writer in New York City.
To that end, McMillan interviewed everyone she could find who had ever known or worked with McMillan, from her family and close friends to her editors and publishers. She also talked to a number of McMillan's ex-husbands, which led to some pretty juicy gossip about the author's personal life which adds to the salaciousness of the book.
