Juanita Harrison—My Great, Wide, Beautiful World with Cathryn Halverson

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Determined from a young age to escape the Jim-Crow South and see new places, Mississippi native Juanita Harrison managed, as a working-class Black woman, to cultivate her own version of a grand world tour, paying for her globe-trotting by picking up piecemeal work as a maid, nanny or cook in far-flung places. My Great, Wide, Beautiful World, her remarkable written account of this eight-year international adventure became a bestseller in 1936 and was the most commercially successful book by a Black author at that time. Cathryn Halverson, author of a brand-new biography on Harrion, joins us this week to discuss this “born writer,” whose sheer pluck and adventurous spirit helped her take the world by storm.
Mentioned in this episode:
My Great, Wide, Beautiful World (amazon.com/My-great-wide-beautiful-world/dp/B0…) by Juanita Harrison (free online version (archive.org/details/mygreatwidebeaut00harr)).
A Born Writer: Juanita Harrison and Her Beautiful World (bookshop.org/p/books/a-born-writer-juanita-har…) by Cathryn Harrison
Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 210 (lostladiesoflit.com/podcast/210-mary-maclane-i…)on Mary Maclane
Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 246 (lostladiesoflit.com/podcast/248-jessie-redmon-…) on Jessie Redmon Fauset
Chimene Jackson (journeysoulfully.co/about-vgbchimene)
Mildred Morris (imdb.com/name/nm0606822)
Mary Poppins (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Poppins_(book_series))by P.L. Travers
Anthony Bourdain (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain)
Era Bell Thomson (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Era_Bell_Thompson)

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