Just As I Am
Cicely Tyson finished Just As I Am days before her death at ninety-six in January 2021. The memoir traces her life from her parents' arrival in Harlem from Nevis, through her early jobs as a secretary and a model, into a film and stage career that included Sounder, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The Trip to Bountiful, and How to Get Away with Murder. She writes about her marriage to Miles Davis, her long friendship with her co-stars, and her decision to turn down work she felt would degrade Black women. The book is also a record of faith, family, and the cost of choosing your own dignity in an industry that often wanted otherwise.
What you might want to know about Just As I Am
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Across nearly a century, the actress Cicely Tyson tells her own story, from a Harlem childhood to a career that refused to take roles that demeaned Black women.
On her Twitter account in January 2021, Michelle Obama paid tribute to Cicely Tyson after her death and pointed readers to Just As I Am, calling it a beautiful final gift and a record of a woman who refused to play any role beneath her.
She wrote the memoir with the journalist Michelle Burford and finished it shortly before she died. The voice and the choices on the page are her own.
Just As I Am was written by Cicely Tyson, published in 2021 by HarperCollins.
Just As I Am is 416 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Just As I Am takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
Just As I Am is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
