An American novelist, essayist, activist and a
poet. Born on Feb9th 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia as the youngest of eight children. She started writing
when she was eight years old. In 1952, Walker was accidentally wounded in the
right eye by a shot from a BB gun fired by one of her brothers. Because the
family had no car, the Walkers could not take their daughter to a hospital for
immediate treatment. By the time they reached a doctor a week later, she had
become permanently blind in that eye. Dispite that, however; she went on to become valedictorian of her local
school, and attend Spelman College and Sarah Lawrence College on scholarships,
graduating in 1965.
While in Spelman, Walker met Martin Luther King Jr in the early 1960s. She marched with hundreds of thousands in August in the 1963 March on Washington. After the graduation she continued her involvement with the civil rights movement and returned to the South. Alice Walker married in 1967 with a Jewish civil rights lawyer (divorced in 1976). Her first book of poems came out in 1968 and her first novel just after her daughter's birth in 1970. She worked as an editor in Ms magazine in California throught the late seventies, and her 1975 article "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston", helped revive interest in the work of Zora Neale Hurston, who inspired Walker's writing and subject matter.
While in Spelman, Walker met Martin Luther King Jr in the early 1960s. She marched with hundreds of thousands in August in the 1963 March on Washington. After the graduation she continued her involvement with the civil rights movement and returned to the South. Alice Walker married in 1967 with a Jewish civil rights lawyer (divorced in 1976). Her first book of poems came out in 1968 and her first novel just after her daughter's birth in 1970. She worked as an editor in Ms magazine in California throught the late seventies, and her 1975 article "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston", helped revive interest in the work of Zora Neale Hurston, who inspired Walker's writing and subject matter.
In addition to her collected short stories and
poetry, Walker's first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), was
published in 1970. In 1976, Walker's second novel, Meridian (1976), came out. The novel dealt with activist workers in the South during the civil
rights movement, and closely paralleled some of Walker's own experiences. In
1982, Walker published what has become her best-known work, the novel The Color
Purple (1982). About a young troubled black woman fighting her way through not
only racist white culture but also patriarchal black culture, it was a
resounding commercial success. The book became a bestseller and was
subsequently adapted into a critically acclaimed 1985 movie as well as a 2005
Broadway musical.Walker has written several other novels, including The Temple
of My Familiar (1989) and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992), which featured
several characters and descendants of characters from The Color Purple. She has
published a number of collections of short stories, poetry, and other. She
expresses the struggles of black people, particularly women, and their lives in
a racist, sexist, and violent society. Her writings also focus on the role of
women of color in culture and history. Walker is a respected figure in the
liberal political community for her support of unconventional and unpopular
views as a matter of principle. Her short stories also include the 1973 Everyday
Use, in which she discusses feminism, racism and the issues raised by young
black people who leave home and lose respect for their parents' culture.
Walker's novels and short stories collections:
- The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970)
- Everyday Use (1973)
- In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973)
- Meridian (1976)
- The Color Purple (1982) Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1983) and National Book Award for Fiction (1983)
- You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories (1982)
- To Hell With Dying (1988)
- The Temple of My Familiar (1989)
- Finding the Green Stone (1991)
- Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992)
- The Complete Stories (1994)
- By The Light of My Father's Smile (1998)
- The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart (2000)
- Now Is The Time to Open Your Heart (2005)
Alice Walker continues to be an involved human
rights activist and very often voices her support for causes fighting injustice
and violence thoughout the world. On March 8, 2003, International Women's Day,
on the eve of the Iraq War, Alice Walker, Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The
Woman Warrior; and Terry Tempest Williams, author of An Unspoken Hunger; were
temporarily arrested along with 24 others for crossing a police line during an
anti-war protest rally outside the White House. She was numerously awarded for
both her literary work and her activism.
by Sylwia Chlebowska
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