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"I've no desire to play the pontificating fool, pretending that I've suddenly produce the answers to all or any life's questions. Quite that contrary, I commenced this book as an exploration, an exercise in self-questing. In other words, I wanted to find out, as I looked back at an extended and complicated life, numerous twists and turns, how well I've done at measuring up to the values I myself have set."
—Sidney PoitierIn 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 type of the man behind the many storied roles. Sidney Poitier here explores these components of character and personal values to have his own measure—as a guy, as a husband and a father, so that 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 self-worth that he has never surrendered and which have dramatically shaped his world. "In the sort 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 benefit from 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 could 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. Focused on the notion that what one does for a full time income articulates to who an example may be, Poitier played only forceful and affecting characters who said something positive, useful, and lasting about the human condition.Here's Poitier's own introspective check out what has informed his performances and his life. Poitier explores the type of sacrifice and commitment, price and humility, rage and forgiveness, and paying the purchase price for artistic integrity. What emerges is a picture of a guy in the face of limits—his own and the world's. A triumph of the spirit, The Way of measuring a Man captures the fundamental Poitier.
