The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography

Sidney Poitier

Oct 2009 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

"I have no wish to play the pontificating fool, pretending that I've suddenly come up with the answers to all life's questions. Quite the contrary, I began this book as an exploration, an exercise in selfquestioning. In other words, I wanted to find out, as I looked back at a long and complicated life, with many twists and turns, how well I've done at measuring up to the values I myself have set."

In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. His body of work is arguably the most morally significant in cinematic history, and the power and influence of that work are indicative of the character of the man behind the many storied roles. Sidney Poitier here explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure--as a man, as a husband and father, and as an actor.

Poitier credits his parents and his childhood on tiny Cat Island in the Bahamas for equipping him with the unflinching sense of right and wrong and of selfworth that he has never surrendered and that have dramatically shaped his world. "In the kind of place where I grew up," recalls Poitier, "what's coming at you is the sound of the sea and the smell of the wind and momma's voice and the voice of your dad and the craziness of your brothers and sisters ... and that's it." Without television, radio, and material distractions to obscure what matters most, he could enjoy the simple things, endure the long commitments, and find true meaning in his life.

Poitier was uncompromising as he pursued a personal and public life that would honor his upbringing and the invaluable legacy of his parents just a few years after his introduction to indoor plumbing and the automobile, Poitier broke racial barrier after racial barrier to launch a pioneering acting career. Committed to the notion that what one does for a living articulates who one is, Poitier played only forceful and affecting characters who said something positive, useful, and lasting about the human condition.

Here, finally, is Poitier's own introspective look at what has informed his performances and his life. Poitier explores the nature of sacrifice and commitment, pride and humility, rage and forgiveness, and paying the price for artistic integrity, What emerges is a picture of a man seeking truth, passion, and balance in the face of limits--his own and the world's. A triumph of the spirit, The Measure of a Man captures the essential Poitier.

Ratings and reviews

Sidney Poitier performs magic in The Measure of a Man. Only true nobility can write the personal history and experience of a 70-something black man from the Bahamas with such power to speak profoundly to a 22-year old white girl from Grand Rapids. The same page will draw the reader to tears both from laughter and from sorrow. At 243 pages, Measure is not difficult, which makes reading from cover to cover relatively easy in one sitting. What’s most powerful about Poitier’s “spiritual autobiography” is that he’s not trying to manipulate the reader one way or another. It’s entirely possible to be completely changed by the end and yet leave the book disagreeing with him in some areas no less than at the beginning. He doesn’t expect his readers to agree with him, he’s simply telling his story. And an interesting story it is. As a boy, Poitier lived in intense poverty, but this poverty was nothing like anyone in America would understand. He says in the first chapter, “In a word, we were poor, but poverty there was very different from the poverty in a modern place characterized by concrete. It’s not romanticizing the past to state the poverty on Cat Island didn’t preclude gorgeous beaches and a climate like heaven, cocoa plum trees and sea grapes and cassavas growing in the forest, and bananas growing wild” (3). Through his journey from Cat Island to Florida to New York to Hollywood, Poitier never lost the sense of self given to him by his parents, especially his father. This is possibly one of the most profound themes of the book: the identity instilled by a parent to his son. This dignity guided him through the roles that he chose, or didn’t choose, as well as how he saw his success in Hollywood and even the industry of Hollywood itself. Any reader, once reading this book, will understand the privilege just experienced from Poitier opening the door, even if only slightly, to his life and the influence his father had on him and, consequently, the entire American film industry.

The book is simply amazing. He covers everything. His simple and humble upbringing to the highs and the lows in his life. I can relate to him when I remember my parents. How it felt to grow up in different kind of America. And the struggles of trying to achieve a measure of success. There is one thing in particular that I recall. The jumper churches. I can answer one question that he asks. A person was speaking in a unknown tongue. And by coinsidence or accident a african person was outside the church and heard this language and understood what was being said. The language was from Uganda. I knew the person that was speaking and I can say that they barely had or if at the most a high school education. I to have thought about making a recording. Thank You for your knowledge and your suffering. All of those things have helped me become a better man.

This book really opened my eyes to the things we as blacks take for granite today. I care more about my life and the choices I make because of Mr poitier's testimony of his life as a black man coming up . This book made me feel I was having a long conversation with a uncle who really cares about me and my future thanks .

About the author

Sidney Poitier was the first black actor to win the Academy Award for best actor for his outstanding performance in Lilies of the Field in 1963. His landmark films include The Defiant Ones, A Patch of Blue, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and To Sir, With Love. He has starred in over forty films, directed nine, and written four. He is the author of two autobiographies: This Life and the "Oprah's Book Club" pick and New York Times bestseller The Measure of a Man. Among many other accolades, Poitier has been awarded the Screen Actors Guild's highest honor, the Life Achievement Award, for an outstanding career and humanitarian accomplishment. He is married, has six daughters, four grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.