Release Date: September 28th, 2021 (first published 1925)

Genre(s): Non-fiction, Bios/Memoirs

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Pages: 352

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Thank you to Sourcebooks for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis

Gertrude Beasley originally published My First Thirty Years in 1925 by a major printing press. Beasley documents her early life in poverty and the dawn of her career as a teacher. But upon release to American readers, the memoir was pulled from shelves and its copies destroyed. Topics such as sex and sexual assault, poverty, and women’s rights are spoken about fully in this book, which led to the book being banned. However, very few copies of My First Thirty Years remained – and two editors were able to track down a copy when they became interested in another obscure work of hers. And so, editors Nina and Marie Bennet have re-issued My First Thirty Years today for the first time in almost 100 years.

Review

Behind My First Thirty Years is an interesting story about the censorship of a young woman’s story, and how that story nearly ceased to exist – until it was found again. Since this book was republished as a part of Banned Books Week, my perspective going into this novel centered around the reception of Beasley’s writing and the topics in particular that caused the censorship of her own story. But regardless of the information you have going into this book, My First Thirty Years captures life in detail of those that were raised in situations similar to Beasley’s in that time.

Much of this memoir focuses on Beasley’s passion for education and her journey entering a teaching career. Beasley’s compelling voice makes her passions clear throughout the novel, and her growth despite her adversities becomes more and more evident as the years progress. Growing up in poverty amongst many, many siblings, Beasley did not grow up in a stable environment. But Beasley persevered and was able to find her way in the world in a career path that she envisioned from her youth.

One of my greatest takeaways from this book is that, despite all of the changes of the past century, there is so much about our society and culture that remains the same. The dismissals of Beasley’s chronic pain, for example, is still a widespread issue that’s faced in the United States today. We also see many of the hurdles that Beasley faces as one of the only women in her field, something that exists in several fields to this day and also remains an issue with marginalized groups. Finally, as I’ve started to read history books and notice the erasure of certain stories in our history, one line in particular in this book jumped out to me: 

“There are two histories prescribed as textbooks for the class; we could take our choice. One of them was written by a Yankee and the point of view was different. So men wrote history like they wanted it to sound. 

The way that our history is written (and what has been left out) has been a growing topic of discussion lately, so I was fascinated to find this quote here. It reflects the need to not censor people’s stories, and heed to the insights that people like Beasley had in order to create a better future. 

In sum, I liked reading My First Thirty Years just as much as I liked hearing the story behind it. If you’re looking for more obscure banned books and enjoy memoirs, you may want to pick this one up.

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