Her Dream of Dreams

A riveting, wrenching drama.... Lowry writes with brio and enthusiasm. --The New York Times Book Review A joyous celebration.... an exuberant, truly sympathetic portrait of a fascinating woman. -San Francisco Chronicle Lowry, who has immense energy and a powerful and dramatic writing style, has done prodigious research. She paints a vivid and engrossing picture of the world Madam Walker emerged from and triumphed over. -Los Angeles Times Book Review Splendid. . . . A dramatic page-turner of a tale. . . . Utterly compelling. -New Orleans Times-Picayune A picture of an impulsive, generous, furtive, commanding, entrepreneurial person. . . . By book's end you can't help feeling that Madam Walker must have been a real corker to be around. . . . Thanks to Beverly Lowry, Madam C.J. Walker is with us again. -The Wall Street Journal [Lowry] brings a narrative approach to her portrayal of Walker, a novelist's recognition of the way a life, like a story, develops and arcs over time. -Los Angeles Times A three-dimensional portrait of the period that resurrects the ghosts of Walker's early years. . . . The depth of [Lowry's] research . . . gives the writing real solidity. . . . Her Dream of Dreams does everything a biography ought to-evoke a life, a personality-while pushing the form beyond its limits.' -Newsday Beautifully written . . . puts the Horatio Alger story to shame. With crystal-clear prose, lively anecdotes and dutiful research Beverly Lowry tells how Walker, against all odds, became a pioneer businesswoman and civil rights activist extraordinaire. Lowry should be saluted for giving Walker the kind of grand historical recognition she deserves. -Douglas Brinkley, Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies and Professor of History at the University of New Orleans Highly evocative. . . A remarkable tale. . . . Because of Lowry's tireless, creative research, Madam C.J. Walker breathes-and inspires-once again. -The Plain Dealer Vivid. . . . [Lowry's] research is amazingly thorough. -Houston Chronicle Lowry has combined the skills of a novelist and the perseverance of a painstaking researcher to produce the most complete account yet of Walker's extraordinary rise from abject poverty . . . to fame and riches. Lowry invests her telling of Walker's story with a depth and breadth of social, political, and economic context that makes the African-American businesswoman's achievement seem all the more remarkable. -Fort Worth Star-Telegram Lively, literate. . . Impeccable research informs a prose that sings, whirls, and delights. -Kirkus Reviews